Mumbai: Even as the State was grappling with the demise of a young lecturer who was set on fire by a jilted suitor, a shocking news has emanated of a suicide by a family in Gadchiroli.
Upset at their daughter's love marriage to a boy who they felt was lower in the social pecking order owing to his caste, the parents and her brother committed suicide on Monday by jumping into a well.
Honour killings over inter-caste marriages are not new to the state and there have been instances of a girl’s husband being slain by an agitated parent or a brother -- a social malaise that was highlighted in a Marathi movie Sairat.
Wargantiwar (52), a farmer, and his wife Vaishali (43), a daily-wage worker in the district general hospital. They were staying in a rented flat with their son Sairam (19) and daughter Pranali (24).
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Pranali was a teacher in a private convent school and her brother was studying in the 12th standard. The boy whom she got married to was working in a private firm.
Pranali tried hard to convince her parents about her well-intentioned marriage but when they failed to relent, she told them two months ago that she was going ahead regardless. The parents tried to dissuade her but failed. At the core of the row was the caste tag, which became a trigger for the suicide.
“The parents belonged to the "Gaanli" caste which is an OBC; nonetheless, they had reservations about the groom who belonged to the ‘sweeper’ caste, which is a Scheduled Caste. The parents, owing to their skewed thinking and caste dynamics, felt humiliated and insulted."
On Saturday, Pranali left home and on Sunday she got married at a famous Shiv Temple in the nearby Markanda village. After hearing about the wedding, the distraught family refused to eat, despite neighbours trying their best to pacify them.
The agitated family even approached Pradip Chaugaokar, the police sub inspector of the area, to file a complaint against their daughter. The police, too, tried to convince them that since the boy and the girl are of marriageable age, a case cannot be registered against them.
On Monday afternoon, neighbours brought food for the family but they refused to eat.
Around 12 noon, the distressed family left home and walked for a km. On reaching a nearby well in a farm, they informed their landlord about their decision to commit suicide.
"You will never see us, we are leaving this world," they informed him on mobile and the shocked landlord informed the police. Before taking the fatal step, they put aside their watches and mobiles on the outer wall of the well.
All three bodies were recovered by the police around 3 pm. Belated reports received by the FPJ correspondent said the anguished newly married couple, on learning about the tragedy, also tried to commit suicide, but were thwarted.
source https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/mumbai-daughters-love-marriage-drives-family-to-suicide
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