‘Had he listened to me, my son would have been alive’: Mother of Karnataka man killed in suspected honour killing

 

"I had cautioned him over the phone to stay away from the girl for his own good. I knew he would be in danger and eventually, we lost him," said a teary Laxmibai.

Laxmibai Nelagi had warned her son against contacting a girl he was in a relationship with just a day before he was allegedly killed by her family in Karnataka’s Bagalkot.

“I had cautioned him over the phone to stay away from the girl for his own good. I knew he would be in danger and eventually, we lost him,” said a teary Laxmibai.

“On September 30, around 10 am, Vishwanath called me over the phone as usual and asked about us and I did advise him to stay away from the girl so that he would be fine. He said ‘yes’ and cut the call stating he was getting work. I did not suspect anything then. The next day, Vishwanath and the girl were killed,” she said.

Vishwanath, 25, was in a relationship with a 17-year-old girl from the same village but from a different community. Vishwanath belonged to the Valmiki community, classified as Scheduled Tribe (ST), while the girl was from the Kuruba community, an Other Backward Caste (OBC).

Laxmibai, 45, lost her husband in 2009 and after that Vishwanath who studied till Class 12 dropped out of school and started working. He worked as a labourer in Kasargod. Apart from Vishwanath, Laxmibai has three other children—one son and two daughters. “I work as a labourer on a farm. I earn Rs 100 every day which is not sufficient. My other son and daughter are studying. It was Vishwanath who used to send Rs 1,000 or Rs 2,000 weekly which helped run the family.”

Their village has about 500 houses and a majority of the people are from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community. Vittal Ramachandrappa Nelagi, a relative of Vishwanath, said, “About 60 per cent of the population belongs to the Valmiki community and 40 per cent are from the Kuruba community. When we came to know about the relationship, not just about Vishwanath, we also considered the welfare of the girl as she would be ousted by the community. But now, her own father has mercilessly killed her.”

 

“There is caste discrimination in this area and we are living with it. But one should not take a step to kill people. He could have warned and prevented them from having communication or meeting,” he added.