Police reports revealed that the Hindu Munnani Union Secretary was irked at Nandhini, a lower-caste Dalit girl, insisting on marrying her after she got pregnant with him after being in a relationship with her for a year.
Yellow flags with mango icons, signaling solidarity for the Vanniyar-dominated Pattali Makkal Katchi, decorate homes on the Vanniyar side of the village, which has about 3000 households.
[1][2][3] Nandini studied up to class 8, helping her family with construction work, primarily concrete laying, taking home ₹50 to ₹100 a day.
Borrowing a mobile from her financially and caste-privileged friends, she spent a long time talking to Manikandan, moving on to a year-long relationship.
[1] Manikandan's neighbor claimed he used to drop her in home after work during late nights and she also a waited outside the Dalit toilet outhouse to talk with him.
[10] This is in breach of Section 361 of the Indian Penal Code, which explicitly specifies that if a minor is taken away without any of the proper permission of their guardian, the child is considered to be kidnapped.
Manikandan was called by the Irumbulikurichi police for an inquiry on 5 January, but after a number of hours two members of his village signed witnesses on behalf of him and he was allowed to go.
Later the men cut her genitalia with a blade and pulled out the foetus from her womb, due to excessive bleeding Nandini died on the spot.
[8] On the basis of a post-mortem examination, which describes the level of the body's decay, the police said that her death happened two weeks before the corpse was discovered and that she had not been kept in unlawful detention.
The family claimed that the police were attempting to fix the death date as 29 December in order to cover up their inability to track down the victim.
[18] District secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Chinnadurai said that "there is no doubt that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Munnani are behind this".
[19] Actor Kamal Haasan urged justice for the gang rape and murder and also apologized for voicing his concerns late.
[20] Music Director G. V. Prakash Kumar also urged for the justice for the victims and proper punishment for the criminals in social media.
[22] Nandini's mother claimed that the Deputy Superintendent of Police visited her home on 16 January and ridiculed her and also said that she had not raised her daughter in a proper way.
[17] In April 2017, the High Court of Madras ordered Criminal Investigation Department (India) (CB-CID) to examine the crime.
[24] Justice G. K. Ilanthiraiyan, instructed the police to apply Section 376 D of the Indian Penal Code to the charges and to conclude the inquiry within 6 months.