Kausalya has raised her voice on social issues after her husband’s murder. Kausalya has raised her voice on social issues after her husband’s murder.

A woman, whose husband was hacked to death in a case of caste killing in Tamil Nadu in March 2016, has been suspended by the Wellington Cantonment Board for her alleged remarks against the country in an interview to the media.

Responding to a BBC Tamil reporter as part of a series on “What it means to be an Indian”, telecast last week, Kausalya was seen raising questions and expressing concerns about the idea of India in a video.

“She was suspended for criticising the country in an interview. Above all, she should have been aware of service rules. Further review of her suspension may lead to her termination from service too as it involves clear violation of service rules,” a board official told The Sunday Express.

Kausalya could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

She was employed as a junior assistant at the board — under the Ministry of Defence — near Coonoor in Nilgiris district.

The duration of her suspension remains unclear even as sources in the Cantonment Board confirmed that the suspension order has been served to her.

Her husband Shankar was a Dalit from Kumaralingam village in Udumalpet, and Kausalya is a Thevar, an OBC caste with social and political clout in the state. After Shankar was hacked to death by goons hired by her parents, a killing caught on CCTV cameras near Udumalpet bus stand, Kausalya decided to fight the case against her parents and got them convicted. Kausalya had survived the attack with head injuries.

She lived with Shankar’s family after the murder and prepared for several exams. After she got her first posting in the Nilgiris under the Cantonment Board, she continued to raise her voice on social issues and engaged with several organisations which had helped her after her husband’s murder.

She used her spare time to learn karate and play the parai, an instrument usually associated with oppressed sections.

In December last year, she married Sakthi, a parai artiste, at Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam’s office in Coimbatore.

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