A 25-year-old Hindu man was bludgeoned to death on Wednesday night for marrying a Muslim girl. The police said the killer was the girl’s brother, who was accompanied by a friend.
According to the police, the victim, Billapuram Nagaraju, was a car salesman from Marpalle in Vikarabad district near Hyderabad. Nagaraju, who was a Dalit, and Syed Ashreen Sultana (23) had been in a relationship for the past several years, but Sultana’s family were vehemently against it.
Nagaraju was reportedly threatened to end the relationship, but despite objections he and Sultana married at an Arya Samaj temple on January 31.
As the news of the brutal crime spread, people and political leaders across Telangana questioned the ruling party’s silence over what could be deemed a hate crime.
Netizens took to the social media to castigate the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party, and the leaders of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)
The Bharatiya Janata Party condemned “the heinous murder of a Hindu man in broad daylight” and called it a “religious killing to deter Muslim girls from marrying Hindu boys”.
“The fanatical forces and organiSations behind the crime should be revealed,” said Bandi Sanjay, Telangana state BJP chief. The MP from Karimnagar deplored “the silence of secular parties, intellectuals and liberal media on the incident.”
“Why have the progressive voices, which had vehemently protested the Miryalaguda honour killing, now fallen silent?” Bandi exclaimed.
In 2018, a man from a scheduled caste was brutally killed for marrying an upper caste woman.
The BJP leaders faulted the Telangana police for not issuing an official statement outlining the crime details and investigation progress.
“Nagaraju’s fault, for which he was gruesomely killed, was marrying a Muslim girl. This hate crime is not just shocking, but unacceptable in the society we live in. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is answerable for the rapid deterioration of law and order in Hyderabad. The TRS’s tacit support to AIMIM is the reason for an uptick in this kind of religious crime in the city,” said chief spokesperson of BJP Telangana Krishna Sagar Rao.
Soyam Bapu Rao, BJP's Adilabad MP, demanded state home minister Mahmood Ali’s response on the matter.
“The TRS, afraid of AIMIM, is disregarding the killing of a Dalit (Hindu) youth. Nagaraju’s murderers should be killed in an encounter,” the MP said.
After the wedding, Nagaraju and Sultana moved to Vishakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, for some time. The couple had only recently returned to the city, and were living on rent in Brindavan Colony—which is under Saroornagar police station jurisdiction—in eastern Hyderabad.
According to the police, Sultana’s elder brother, Syed Mubin, and a friend, committed the crime.
On Wednesday night at about 9 pm, the couple, who were traveling on a motorcycle, were followed by Mubin and his friend. The two men blocked the couple’s path, and Mubin used an iron rod to repeatedly strike Nagaraju on his head, while Sultana tried to stop them and cried for help.
“The girl’s brother held a grudge against Nagaraju and killed him. The reason is inter-religious marriage,” K Srinivasulu, Sub-Inspector, Saroornagar Sector-IV told DH.
Mubin and his friend are in police custody. A knife was also recovered from them.
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