In a shocking incident, Kausalya’s husband, a 22-year-old Dalit man named Sankar, was brutally hacked to death in broad daylight on March 13, 2016. But Sankar wasn’t the only target. The three killers also attacked Kausalya with sickles, fracturing her head. The crime which occurred due to pure hatred towards cast was well-planned to kill them both. However, Kausalya managed to survive the brutality to talk about it.

“My Amma threatened me repeatedly that she will kill me. She told me I was better off dead than married to him,” 20-year-old Kausalya Sankar told Tirupur Principal District and Sessions, Judge Alamelu Natarajan, The News Minute reported.

Sankar, a Dalit man, and Kausalya, who is from another cast had been married for just eight months before that fateful March day. There had already been many attempts by her parents to separate the couple. Since none of that worked, they planned to kill Sankar and eventually began planning.

“The plan was hatched by Kausalya’s father Chinnasamy, his wife Annalakshmi and maternal uncle Pandi Durai. An auto driver who overheard them has become an important witness in the case,” Special Public Prosecutor U Sankaranarayanan appointed by the TN government told TNM.

Kausalya’s father who was also a professional taxi driver, had already kidnapped her once. However, when she escaped from their hold, they offered Rs 10 lakh to Sankar to end their marriage. However, Sankar refused the money.

“They decided to kill her. Then came the next part, who will execute the killing? This is when Chinnasamy approached a distant relative, a man who already had a criminal background, Jagadeesan,” says Udumalaipettai Deputy Superintendent of Police Vivekanandan.

On March 13th, the couple decided to go shopping at a place few kilometers away from Sankar’s place.“The killers got a chance and they did not hesitate even once in executing the murder. But what is disturbing is the way they behaved after they hacked the couple. In the footage, one can clearly see that they were not fleeing, they got on their bikes leisurely and left,” a source revealed.

But the most important witness in the case is Kausalya herself. The young woman has been resolute in court, recounting the threats and what happened on that fateful day.

There is one other thing the prosecution and investigators agree on: they had never seen a caste-hate crime that so brazenly involved so many people in the conspiracy.