‘What honour? They killed my love, I fled’

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It’s Karnataka’s dirty little secret — an honour killing that the villagers of Abalawadi in Karnataka deny even happened.

On November 6, Suvarna, a 22 year old from the upper caste Vokkaliga community, was beaten and then hanged to death, her dead body burnt by none other than her father for daring to fall in love with a Dalit boy in Mandya district a couple of months ago.

No one will talk about the crime. There’s a conspiracy of silence in Abalawadi village, 40 kms from Mandya, where the villagers, hostile, suspicious and obviously complicit, deny that any honour killing has taken place at all.

22-year-old Suvarna’s home remains locked. Her father and family are absconding. Two months after the heinous filicide Govindaraju, the Dalit with whom Suvarna was in love and who fled that night with his family move from village to village, like hunted animals.

The DC team was finally able to track down Govindaraju at an undisclosed destination. Depressed and breaking into a shiver, he spoke about his love for Suvarna and the tragic circumstances that led to her killing.

“Suvarna and I were in love for over five years. I am a Dalit and she is a Gowda. After a few years both our parents got to know about our relationship and one of her relatives even threatened us a couple of years ago but we didn’t care. Seven months ago her parents got her engaged against her wishes and I left for Bengaluru. But she got my number and kept calling me. I changed my number twice but she still got hold of it and kept asking me to elope with her. She wanted me to meet her just once and I agreed,’’ he said, sobbing.

The meeting between the lovers proved fatal. “We met on November 6 (2011) near the Arasinagere Gate near our village. Ravi, who was engaged to Suvarna saw us and brought a dozen people from the village, besides her father, Davalana Ramakrishna. The mob beat us both up and dragged us to the village.

"I was taken to my house and she to hers. At around 4 pm, her father and relatives brought Suvarna to my house and forced her to commit suicide. I could hear her crying for mercy as I was made to sit in the backyard. Her father and his men brought a rope and hanged her in my house."

“My family members who were forced to watch her father stringing Suvarna up, realized I was next and started screaming out what they saw. I have no idea how or what, but somehow I broke my bonds and escaped from the back of the house into the sugarcane fields,’’ he recounted, shivering at the memory.

Haunted, gaunt, Govindaraju has been on the run for two months now, moving from one hideout to another. His entire family has fled the village, which was once their home. The police have arrested four of the 10 accused in Suvarna’s killing so far, but are yet to catch the killer — Suvarna’s father, who is the village sarpanch and other members of her family, as well as her fiancé.