Teenage girl murdered for rejecting marriage proposal

A girl belonging to the Scheduled Caste was murdered by a youth from an intermediate caste in Tirunelveli town on Monday.

Police said an unidentified person slit the throat of M. Sandhya, 18, of Thiruppanikarisalkulam near here as she was taking a few fancy articles and toys from the godown of a shop, where she was working. She died on the spot.

Her relatives, backed by members affiliated to caste outfits, staged a road roko at Chokkappanai Mukku near Swami Nellaiyappar Temple. While police were holding talks with them, assuring that the culprit would be arrested shortly, a few protestors picked up a heated argument with a woman police inspector and verbally abused her as the male officers watched. The road blockade on the busy road paralysed the vehicular traffic for a while.

After collecting CCTV footage from the scene of crime, police nabbed a teenage boy from Sattankulam in Thoothukudi district for allegedly murdering the girl. As the police were grilling the suspect, the relatives of the deceased girl said she was murdered for rejecting a marriage proposal from him.

However, when other girls working in the shop were questioned, they said Sandhya was in touch with the boy for a while but left him after she reportedly found him consuming alcohol. Hence, he might have murdered Sandhya, police sources said.

Further investigations are on.