Thousands of emotionally-charged people had voluntarily gathered in Miryalaguda, Telangana, on the day of Pranay’s funeral. A month after the honour killing that shook the state, a rally is being organised by the family in the hope of justice.
Perumalla Pranay Kumar was hacked to death before the very eyes of his pregnant wife and his mother. The 24-year-old was killed outside Miryalaguda Hospital in Telangana. He was married to Amrutha, 8 months ago, and the girl’s father is the main accused in Pranay murder case.
No statements have been recorded from the two eye-witnesses, Amrutha or Pranay’s mother, under Section 164 of CrPC. But, Amrutha’s affluent relatives are pressurizing Pranay’s family to bring her back.
Earlier, the rally was announced to be held today (October 14), which marks one month since the honour killing. But the rally was postponed to October 21 as the Miryalaguda police had not given permission for the same. A rally like this might provide strength to the family and many others fighting for justice against the powerful, dominant forces, feel the residents of Miriyalaguda.
President of the Telangana Kula Nirmulana Poraata Samithi, B Lakshmaiah, has put forth a set of demands at the meet, which were to be endorsed by all the 25 civil societies that attend the meet in solidarity.
Demands:
Their demands include: setting up of a fast track court at Miryalaguda under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 to complete the trial in two months and to punish everyone involved in the case; Illegally obtained properties by Maruthi Rao and Sravan must be identified and confiscated by the state; Pranay Law, must be enacted to protect individuals choosing to marry outside the caste; those that aided and facilitated the illegal activities of Maruthi Rao and his brother Sravan must be punished; police protection must be provided for Pranay’s parents and wife till the final judgment is out; inquiry by a sitting High Court judge must be ordered to identify all those involved in this murder.
Amrutha is the only daughter of Maruthi Rao, one of the top builders in Miriyalaguda. Pranay, belonging to the Mala(SC) community, was murdered on his way back to his car with his wife and mother after a prenatal health check-up on the September 14.
At a roundtable conference held in Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Hyderabad, on October 5, to deliberate on the strategies to fight violent rebounds of the castes in Telangana and to inspect the signs of progress of such cases, the bench feared that Pranay’s case would also face the same fate as other such cases.
The killing has deeply disturbed the Dalit-Bahujan community. This is not the first, but the 19th incident so far with a back-story of families disapproving inter-caste or inter-community marriages. In every incident, it is the spouse from the lower caste, who is being targeted; each worse than the other.
Pranay’s father, an LIC employee, Perumalla Balaswamy, rather than sitting athome and grieving over his son’s death, has decided to work towards a caste-free society and spoke at the roundtable assuring that Pranay’s death would be the last such death.
He also spoke about how Amrutha’s father, Maruthi Rao was politically dominant and how Pranay was warned through the Nakrekal TRS MLA Vemula Veeresham, a Dalit himself.
Pranay’s father also stressed on the fact that his family is economically well-off and that they do not require any compensation from the government. He mentioned how Pranay and Amrutha were friends from school and how they kept in touch while pursuing engineering course in Hyderabad. He also stated that since Amrutha’s family was against the relationship, they were out of touch for two years, but still got married in Hyderabad at Arya Samaj.
Before the marriage, Pranay and Amrutha did consult with Nalgonda Superintendent of Police Srinivas and Miryalaguda DSP to request for protection because of the incessant threats. The two families were also counseled on the matter by the Miryalaguda DSP. The couple had also applied for passports to stay aloof for a while until situation gets back to normalcy.
The police are obliged to provide protection when they receive complaints of plausible threats under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, even then, Balaswamy along with his wife and Amrutha, his daughter-in-law, live without police protection.
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