While his parents suspected Ilavarasan was killed, the police said his death was suicide.
The death of a man whose body was found on the tracks in Tamil Nadu days after he married an upper caste woman in 2013 was due to suicide, the Madras High Court ruled today. Ilavarasan, a 21-year-old Dalit man, was found dead in Dharmapuri, a day after his wife refused to return to him citing conflict between their communities and memories of her father.
His wife Divya Nagaraj was from the upper caste Vanniyar community; after she married Ilavarasan, her father allegedly committed suicide, which provoked riots between the two groups. Two hundred and fifty Dalit homes were also set on fire.
While his parents suspected Ilavarasan was killed, the police said his death was suicide.
The Madras High Court today agreed, accepting the police report.
Forensic experts had said a month after Ilavarasan's death that in conversations with his wife, he had threatened to commit suicide if she did not return to him. The police also said his close friends had told a magistrate that he had shared plans to commit suicide from the spot where his body was found.
Ilavarasan's family, however, alleged that the police intimidated their son's close friend and another relative to give statements that would corroborate their suicide theory. As questions were raised about the death and the police investigation, an autopsy was also conducted by a team of doctors from the AIIMS hospital in Delhi.
Nearly a month before Ilavarasan died, his wife had told the High Court that she did not want to return to him. She said she found it difficult to continue in a marriage that had caused her father to commit suicide.