Hyderabad man killed for intercaste marriage

NEERAJ P, MEMBER OF THE MARWADI COMMUNITY, MARRIED SANJANA FROM THE YADAV COMMUNITY LAST YEAR IN A TEMPLE AGAINST HER FAMILY’S WISHES

HYDERABAD: Four persons were arrested in Hyderabad for allegedly stabbing a 21-year-old man to death for marrying outside his caste, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place in the busy Begum Bazar area on Friday night, when Neeraj P, who ran a shop, was leaving for home with his father Jagdeesh on his bike. Four men attacked them with knives and sickles.

“Neeraj was stabbed and he died in a local hospital,” a police officer said.

Neeraj, a member of the Marwadi community, married Sanjana, who was from the Yadav community, last year in a temple against the wishes of her family, police said. The couple has a three-month-old toddler.

In the police complaint, Sanjana alleged her cousins played a role in the killing, based on their earlier death threats.

Neeraj’s father Jagdeesh, too, said he had approached Afzal Gunj police about the threats earlier in January.

Based on the market’s CCTV footage, police arrested four men. “The investigation is proceeding,” said Y Ajay Kumar, station house officer of Shahinayatgunj police station.

Begum Bazar traders shut shops and staged a protest outside the police station.

The incident comes days after a 25-year-old Hindu man, who married a Muslim woman, was killed by his wife’s brother in Hyderabad. The incident took place at Panjala Anil Kumar Colony of Saroornagar on May 4 when the accused attacked the bike-borne couple with an iron rod and then stabbed the man.

Billipuram Nagaraju belonged to Sc-mala community and his wife Syed Ashrin Sultana got married in January this year.