This story is from September 22, 2018

Inter-caste couple hides in Telangana jungles fearing attack by parents

Inter-caste couple hides in Telangana jungles fearing attack by parents
Illustration for representational purpose.
JANGAON: In a new twist to the ongoing trouble faced by inter-caste couples, who married against the wishes of their parents, a tribal youth and a girl hailing from an upper caste community in Jangaon district of Telangana have taken shelter in a jungle to protect themselves.
The couple has also released a video footage showing them taking shelter in an undisclosed forest area somewhere in north Telangana.
The video was posted on YouTube and it went viral on social media.
In the video message, the girl, who completed intermediate a couple of months ago, said she apprehended threat to her husband’s life. She said her parents and villagers may eliminate them due to inter-caste marriage.
The couple said they married about two months ago and left their homes to stay in Hyderabad. The girl, who belongs to the Reddy community, is a native of Jangaon town, about 80km from Hyderabad, while husband, a member of Erukala, a tribal group, is a resident of Maripadiga, 20km away from Jangaon.
The couple said in the video that they shifted their base to Hyderabad after the marriage but later moved to Kavali in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh after the girl’s parents came to know of their whereabouts in Hyderabad.
However, the couple was caught by Kavali police during a raid on lodge houses in the town. The police, who were not convinced that they are a married couple, brought them to Jangaon on Saturday for confirmation with the local police.

The Kavali police left the couple in Jangaon police station. As the Jangaon police were busy with Ganesh immersion in Hyderabad and other places, the constable there told the couple to wait till the return of the sub-inspector V Rama Rao. The couple went to Maripadiga where they met with a hostile crowd. They escaped from the village and took shelter in a jungle fearing attack. In Telangana, two inter-caste couple were attacked with deadly weapons in the last 10 days resulting in a fatality.
The girl said they went to Tirupati before shifting to Kavali, where the local police caught them.
While the parents of the couple are tight-lipped and local police are not available for comment, the villagers of Maripadiga have a different story to tell.
They lodged a written complaint with the police alleging that the girl's husband had cheated three girls earlier and they do not want him to cheat another girl. The complaint was lodged on the letterhead of Maripadiga gram panchayat and signed by former sarpanch T Kalavati, vice-sarpanch P Vijaya and a few elders of the village. They also alleged that Prasant’s father and brother were also harassing villagers. It is not clear whether the village heads have a running feud with Prasant’s family.
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