To me, my father is dead, says attack survivor Madhavi

I will never forgive him, says woman brutally assaulted by father over intercaste marriage

Exactly a month after she was brutally attacked and seriously injured by her father, an exhausted and weak 20-year old Madhavi walked out of hospital where she fought valiantly and won against death.

An inebriated Manohar Chary had attacked his daughter and son-in-law B Sandeep on a busy Hyderabad road on September 20 injuring both of them, after Madhavi had eloped and married the lower caste Sandeep.

The video of the brutal hacking went viral on social media sending a chill down people’s spines. Madhavi was admitted to Yashoda Hospital in a critical condition and had to undergo a 10-hour surgery as she had received a deep gash on the neck.

Addressing a press conference at the time of her discharge, Madhavi said she will never forget or forgive the brutality of her father. “Time may heal my wounds, but memories will never go away. My deep scars will always remind me the brutality my father had shown towards me,” she said.

Ruling out the possibility of going back to her father’s place, she declared, “My father is dead to me.”

After his arrest Chary had said he was not against the inter-caste marriage, but was worried about the future of his daughter after marrying a poor young man. But Madhavi’s version was different.

“My father says he attacked me for not taking his permission before marriage. But how could I have done that? He never allowed me to speak freely and I know that even if I had asked he would have shouted me down and married me off to someone else.”

Angry father

She said it was quite possible that her father was angry with her because her husband Sandeep was a Dalit. She said Chary lured her to come home, promising to hand over her academic certificates she left behind while leaving home. “I did not know that he would try to kill me,” she said.

Sandeep who was also injured in the attack but recovered early, expressed fear that if his father-in-law was not punished he may try to attack them again. “Our only wish is to lead a peaceful and happy life together,” he said.

The surgery and her entire treatment was quite expensive for the poor couple, with the total bill running up to Rs1 million (Dh49,978).

She thanked the management of the hospital, which bore the initial expenses, caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and minister T. Srinivas Yadav for help in clearing the bills.