CHENNAI: Another inter-caste relationship , another murder, more bloody caste clashes . The cycle of love, hate, violence and death is likely to be repeated, with police confirming that a dalit youth who went missing in Cuddalore on December 12 was murdered.

The boy’s father, who filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras high court on Wednesday, alleged that his son was killed because he was in a relationship with a non-dalit girl.

Police on Wednesday fished out the decomposing body of M Gopalakrishnan out of a tank near Paradhur village, where he was last seen after he accompanied the girl home from college.

A senior police officer said the body had been sent to the Chidambaram General Hospital for autopsy to determine the cause of death, but added that knife wounds on the youth’s neck clearly indicated that he had been murdered.

As news spread that the body had been found, a mob torched the house of a close relative of the girl. Dalit outfit Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK) and Gopalakrishnan’s relatives staged a road roko, demanding arrest of the girl’s family members. Police fear the situation could spiral out of control if the caste clashes that broke out in Dharmapuri district last month spread to other parts of the state.

Gopalakrishnan’s father, Mayakrishnan, lodged a complaint against Jayamkondam MLA J Guru, of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, alleging that he was behind the murder.

'Girl's family had beaten up boy'

PMK and VCK members have been at the centre of recent caste clashes in the state.

Mayakrishnan, of Senninatham near Sethiyathoppu in Cuddalore district, said Gopalakrishnan and the girl, students of B P J College of Arts and Science at Sri Mushnam in the same district, had been in a relationship that the girl's family opposed. Mayakrishnan said the girl's family had earlier beaten up his son.

"My son had gone to drop the girl at her native village on December 12 and he has been missing since then," Mayakrishnan said. He said he had lodged a missing person complaint with the Sri Mushnam police on December 14. "Today we moved a habeas corpus petition in the Madras high court," he said.

Sethiathope DSP S Arumugasamy said police had dropped the missing case and registered it afresh as a murder. "Mobile conversations between Gopalakrishan and the girl confirm that they were in a relationship," Arumugasamy said. "We are probing all aspects."

In the high court, a bench comprising justices C Nagappan and M Sathyanarayanan on Wednesday morning issued notices to the Cuddalore district administration and the state government. The court was informed in the afternoon that the youth had been found murdered.

Advocates P Pugalenthi and M Radhakrishnan brought up the matter again before the division bench and sought a CBI probe into the murder. The court asked the advocates to file a petition to the effect and adjourned the case to Friday.