Ashrin Sultana, the wife of the 25-year-old Dalit man who was beaten to death for the inter-religion marriage on Wednesday in a brutal hate crime, said she did not initially realise that it was her brother who attacked the newly wed couple. The attack left Billipuram Nagaraju dead and his wife Ashrin Sultana severely injured. “We were going home when my brother along with another person come on a motorcycle and pushed my husband (Nagaraju) and started beating him. In the beginning, I didn’t know it was my brother who was attacking him. No one helped us,” Ashrin told news agency ANI.
Her brother was against the marriage from the beginning and did not approve even after Nagaraju vowed to convert to Islam. Ashrin’s brother Syad Mobin Ahmed has been arrested along with another accused Mohammed Masood Ahmed.
The incident took place at Panjala Anil Kumar Colony of Saroornagar in Hyderabad when the accused attacked the bike-borne couple with an iron rod and then stabbed.Nagaraju who belonged to SC-Mala community and Ashrin went to the same school and college and were in a relationship for over five years before their wedding in January this year.
Police said the plan to kill Nagaraju was meticulously hatched. One month ago, the accused tried to locate Nagaraju but failed. On the day of the attack, the accused searched his location and found him at the Maruti showroom in Malakapet. As it was not convenient to assault there, they followed Nagaraju’s two-wheeler and attacked him at Panjala Anil Kumar colony.
The accused beat Nagaraju for 15 minutes and no one came to save him though his wife cried for help. “I begged everyone to let us go. Why did the public come now? He was killed in front of everyone, can’t the world see? At the signal, I requested people for help. If I would have died I wouldn’t have felt sad. I tried to save Nagaraju by covering him. But there were five other people pushing me away from him and other people were beating him. Nagaraju was wearing a helmet but despite that, they injured his skull,” Ashrin said.
