THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is shocked by the brutality of a gang beating a father to death in front of his daughter in the middle of the night before the marriage for rejecting a marriage proposal. A four-member gang including brothers in the neighborhood broke into the wedding house and unleashed terror. The girl and her relatives were severely beaten. The incident that rocked the state took place at Varkala Vadasserikonam on Tuesday night at 12:45 p.m.
G Raju (61), a native of Vadasserikonam Valiyavilakom, was the one who got murdered shortly before the wedding of his daughter Srilakshmi. He was hit on the head with a spade. Jishnu (26), his brother Jijin (25) of Vadasserikonam JJ Palace, their friends Manu (26) of Vadasserikonam Manubhuvan and Shyamkumar (26) of KS Nandanam were arrested. The court remanded the accused.
Srilakshmi's marriage was supposed to take place at 10:55 yesterday morning in Sivagiri. Relatives said that Jishnu had approached Sree Lakshmi many times over the past one and a half years, but Raju was not ready to give his daughter to Jishnu, who was a drug addict and a criminal. Both of them belong to different communities and Sree Lakshmi was not interested either. Srilakshmi is an MSc Geologist. Jishnu has no educational qualifications in particular.
By midnight on Tuesday, the relatives and neighbors had returned from the wedding reception. The attack took place when Raju's son Srihari Raj went to Varkala with his friends. The accused reached the house yard in a white Volkswagen car and played loud music in the car.
Raju's wife Jaya and Srilakshmi came out hearing this and were attacked by the gang. Jishnu beat Srilakshmi down and smashed her face on the floor. Raju, who rushed in after seeing this, was beaten. Hearing their screams, Raju's brother-in-law Devadathan and daughter Gurupriya ran to stop them. They were also attacked. First Devadathan and then Raju were hit on the head with a spade. By the time the neighbors rushed them to a private hospital in Varkala, Raju had died.
The police team with the help of Raju's son and his friends searched the area and arrested the accused. Raju's body was cremated at around 4 pm after post-mortem at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. Srilakshmi returned home from the hospital. Devadathan has seven stitches on his head.