Brahmin man in J&K allegedly poisoned, set on fire by family for refusing to divorce dalit wife

A Brahmin man Ashwani Sharma from Jammu was reportedly set on fire for marrying a woman from Dalit community. He was allegedly set on fire by his father Sat Pal Sharma and paternal aunt Ram Pyari on January this year.

In 2019, Ashwani, an ‘upper caste’ Brahmin community, married Laxmi Devi, a divorced Dalit woman without the consent of his parents. Since his family members opposed their marriage, he and Laxmi lived in a rented house in Samba district district of Jammu. Later they moved to Udhampur with their two children. Due to several burn injuries suffered in the incident, Ashwani had to quit his work as a truck driver. His wife earns as a domestic worker.

Although the couple have been together for more than a decade, Sharma’s family still continues to reject Lakshmi. They have threatened him of consequences for staying with her.

There are several reports of attempted attacks against them. His aunt Ram Pyari had even tried to poison him in June 2020, when he rejected their demands to divorce Laxmi.

The couple claim, that when they filed a complaint against them in the poisoning case and a first information report (FIR) in the immolation case, the police forcibly closed the complaint relating to the poisoning, while the case relating to the immolation is still pending investigation, according to their lawyer.

According to The Wire, the Udhampur police did not register FIR against his family members until May this year, almost four months after the crime was committed in January.

An FIR was filed under sections 307 and 156 of IPC against his father, aunt and his grandmother Maya Devi.

While Ashwani and Laxmi could not afford a lawyer, they persuaded an advocate names Gulshan Singh to take their case on pro bono.

Considering the fact that the police took so long for lodge and FIR against his family, Ashwani and Lakshmi have now pinned their hope on the judiciary to give them justice.

In India, every year, hundreds of youngsters who dare to love or marry outside their community face similar violent attacks, mostly by their own family. Between 2017 to 2019, there have been atleast 145 incidents of “honour killing” in the country, according to Ajay Kumar Mishra, the minister of state in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a reply to an unstarred question by an MP in August this year, the union minister said, “Ninety-two incidents of honour killing took place in India in 2017, 29 in 2018 and 24 in 2019.”

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