Inter-caste marriage claims two lives in MP village

Sangeeta was a Banjara girl who was brought up by Ranjan’s parents and regarded him as her brother. When the young computer operator fell in love with Ruchi, a physically challenged girl, and married her she let them stay in her house. Her husband Parshuram, who earned his living as an auto-rickshaw driver, didn’t oppose her move. However, the Banjaras threatened to kill Ranjan if he did not leave Ruchi. They also boycotted Parshurama and Sangeeta for giving the couple shelter.

According to sources, Ranjan had written to the district collector and the superintendent of police informing them about their plight and had said how the community elders had boycotted them and was putting pressure on him to annual his marriage with Ruchi.

“They are not only harassing us but also maligning our pure relationship,” Ranjan wrote in the letter dated June 23.

In her suicide note Sangeeta wrote that she was forced to take the extreme step as she could not withstand social boycott and continued harassment from the community.

Ranjan, who worked as a computer operator at a local mill, was in office when he came to know that Sangeeta had committed suicide. He was heart broken. Soon after, he consumed poison.

“How can I live when my sister has taken her life,” Ranjan said in his dying declaration. Sub-inspector Mohan Sarban, who took down the dying declaration, said the community had cut off relations with Sangeeta’s family and insisted that she drive Ranjan out. He said the letter had not reached the police station in time.

The police have registered a case of an abetment to suicide against Raju Singh, Manoj Singh, Shivcharan and Tara Singh, who were named in Ranajan’s letter, and Sangeeta’s husband Parshuram.