Dalit man allegedly murdered for his “crime” of being romantically involved with a higher caste woman

In a ghastly incident, a 25-year-old man, Manthani Madhukar, from Khanapur village in Peddapalli Lok Sabha constituency of Telangana was allegedly murdered for being romantically involved with a girl from a higher caste. The incident happened on 13th March but came to light only two days ago. According to reports, the boy was a farmhand working with a family of a girl who he got romantically involved with and was murdered for the same reason. The images of the dead body show several injuries including severely mutilated genitals. The local circle inspector had initially termed this as a case of a suicide stating that no injuries were found.

A video of the victim’s mother and brother is now available in which they talk about the day when Manthani was not to be found and his body was discovered in a canal many hours later.

According to the victim’s mother, on Monday morning (13th March), Manthani Madhukar’s family members, left for work while he was still at home. The last person who saw Madhukar leaving home was the neighbour. According to the neighbour, Madhukar took bath, ate food left the house at around 11 am. By the time, his mother and sister returned home, it was 6 pm and Madhukar’s elder brother was waiting for them to enquire about his whereabouts. None of them – including the neighbour – knew where he had gone. All that they knew was that Madhukar had left home by 11 am. After asking around for a while, Madhukar’s elder brother went on to the main road and asked the villagers if they anyone had Madhukar since morning. Simultaneously, the family was also trying to reach out to Madhukar on his mobile. Even though the call went through, Madhukar didn’t answer the phone. After 10:00 pm on Monday, the phone was switched off. The family then frantically called the relatives, but Madhukar wasn’t found anywhere. By 8:00 am on Tuesday, the elder brother and a cousin again started searching for Madhukar in Venkatapuram village but returned by 09:30 am without any information. Then around 20 people gathered and took auto, bikes and went out in search of Madhukar, but he was not found anywhere.

At 11.52am on Tuesday, the elder brother received a call and a girl informed him that her family had thrown Madhukar’s body in the canal near his home. The call was disconnected abruptly after the girl’s mother intervened, and the Madhukar’s elder brother along with others went to Venkatapuram to check in the canal there. At around 05.30pm on Tuesday, someone called the youngest brother and told that they had seen Madhukar’s body and everyone rushed to the spot immediately.

According to a clipping from Andhra Jyothy newspaper dated 16th March 2017, the family of the victim protested out in the open with the victim’s body in the ambulance. The family insisted that it is not a suicide and demanded a thorough enquiry into the issue. According to this report, the local inspectors assured the family that a thorough enquiry will be done.

Some people from the activist fraternity who are in the victim’s village today informed us that the victim’s family is currently visiting the collectorate regarding the case.