Hyderabad: Less than a week after a Dalit man was hacked to death in front of his pregnant wife in a suspected case of honour killing in Nalgonda district in Telangana, another inter-caste couple was attacked in the state’s capital Hyderabad by a man with a sickle in broad daylight on a busy road.
The man behind the attack on the newly-wed couple is believed to be the woman’s father, who was reportedly opposed to their marriage.
“The man attacked the couple with a sickle and they suffered bleeding injuries. They have been admitted to a private hospital,” a senior police official told PTI.
The assailant fled the scene, he said.
Footage of the incident, captured on a CCTV from a nearby building, showed the man attacking the couple from behind with a sickle as they were sitting on a two wheeler. He comes up behind them on a motorcycle, take off his helmet, and pulls out a sickle from his bag, before rushing to attack the couple.
Preliminary investigation showed that the reason for the attack was the man’s opposition to the marriage, he said.
Sandeep, 21, is a student of Vivekananda Degree College at Kukatpally while Madhavi, 18, just completed intermediate. They reportedly belong to different castes.
Th police has said that Sandeep, who belongs to Scheduled Caste community, and Madhavi, who is from the Backward class community, married at an Arya Samaj temple about a month ago.
Some local residents, who found the couple lying bleeding on the road and got them shifted to a private hospital, the official said. Madhavi’s hand has been nearly chopped off and Sandeep has suffered injuries to his back.
“Sandeep was called by her father-in-law to a location in Erragadda here on the pretext of buying them some garments and the couple reached there… but he suddenly attacked them,” one of Sandeep’s friends told the media.
Last week, a Dalit Christian man was killed at Miryalguda in Nalgonda district in a case of alleged honour killing.
Seven persons, including his father-in-law, who was opposed to the marriage, have been arrested.
(With inputs from PTI)