The five suspects are all daily wage labourers. The five suspects are all daily wage labourers.

Two days after a young Dalit man was hacked to death on a busy street in Udumalaipettai town of Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district, the police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested five accused even as the victim’s mother-in-law and her brother are said to be absconding.

V Shankar, 22, was killed on Sunday afternoon, allegedly for marrying a woman from the politically and socially dominant Thevar community, Kausalya.

Kausalya’s father, Chinnaswamy, had surrendered on Monday and claimed responsibility for the murder. The police said her mother, Annalakshmi, and maternal uncle Pandi Durai are absconding. An officer claimed the police have learnt that they had a direct role in the murder.

The five suspected arrested in the early hours of Tuesday — all daily wage labourers — have been identified as Selvakumar (26), Madhan (25), Manikandan (25), Jagadish (31), and Manikandan (29). The police said the first four had a direct role in the conspiracy and murder, while Manikandan was arrested for helping and harbouring the accused.

Kausalya and Sankar got married eight months ago. Kausalya and Sankar got married eight months ago.

Kausalya and Shankar, who were in the same engineering college, married in July last year, and were reportedly under constant threat from Kausalya’s parents ever since. “The police once had to intervene to rescue Kausalya when her parents tried to kidnap her,” the officer said.

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