CHENNAI: In a gruesome honour killing, a 21-year-old woman was brutally murdered by her father and relatives in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday for marrying a Dalit youth.

Sripriya, who belonged to the backward Kallar community, had fallen love with A Badhrakali, while she was doing an internship for her B.Ed course.

The couple eloped and got married in Salem on September 29. Police and relatives said Sripriya`s father Srinivasan and two relatives came to Madathukulam, near Udumalpet in Tirupur district, on Wednesday. The newly-wed couple was staying with Badhrakali`s sister in Madathukulam. Srinivasan asked Sripriya to come to Trichi to visit her mother who was ill.

She refused and told them she would decide after her husband returned home. They left quietly, Badhrakali`s brother-in-law Chandrasekar said. Then the two relatives returned. When my wife Rani and a neighbour questioned them, one man threatened them with a knife while the other stabbed Sripriya,said Chandrasekar. Sripriya was stabbed on her neck, breasts and abdomen.