Manya, a 20-year-old from the Lingayat community, died on Sunday evening after her father Prakash Gouda and relatives allegedly assaulted her with pipes, sickles, and swords in Inam-Veerapur village, Hubballi Rural taluk, over her May marriage to Dalit man Vivekananda who was targeted separately but escaped.
The attack also injured Vivekananda’s parents, Renubva and Subhash, now hospitalised with him at KIMS Hospital in Hubballi; three arrests including Prakash followed, despite prior police warnings and an undertaking from him to stay away.
Dharwad SP Gunjan Arya described the 6 pm premeditated assault, with a murder case registered at Hubballi Rural station and investigations ongoing; Dalit organisations in Hubballi-Dharwad condemned it and announced protests for Monday.
Savage Attack Shatters Family Home
Eyewitness accounts paint a harrowing picture of the violence that unfolded around 6 pm on Sunday, when Prakash Gouda, accompanied by his sons reported variably as Iranna and Arun Gouda or Veeranagouda and Arunagouda barged into Vivekananda’s residence under the pretext of reconciliation.
Pretending merely to meet his daughter, Prakash and his kin unleashed a brutal assault using iron rods, pipes, sickles, and even swords, targeting Manya who was six (or seven per some reports) months pregnant and unable to defend herself adequately.
She suffered severe, fatal injuries and was rushed to a private hospital in Hubballi, where she succumbed later that night despite medical efforts; her desperate screams and the chaos drew neighbours, but it was too late to save her.
Vivekananda, who had stepped out to the fields earlier, narrowly escaped a parallel attack by the same group but returned to find his wife critically hurt and his parents Renubva and Subhash beaten while trying to intervene and protect her.
All three victims remain under treatment at KIMS Hospital, with Vivekananda recounting the ordeal to police amid grief. Dharwad Superintendent of Police Gunjan Arya provided an official statement: “The accused first assaulted Manya with pipes inside the house; when Renavva and Subhash attempted to rescue her, they too were attacked with similar weapons.
This was a clear case of premeditation, as the family had been counselled multiple times post-marriage”. Hubballi Rural Police Inspector Ravi Kumar added that a case under relevant sections for murder and attempt to murder has been filed, with forensic teams examining the scene and more arrests anticipated as probes deepen.
This incident not only claims a young life but humanises the profound loss a mother-to-be denied her future, a husband widowed, and in-laws scarred amid a village still reeling from the bloodshed.
Background of Threats and Failed Safeguards
The tragedy traces back to May 2025, when Manya, then 19 or 20, defied her family’s wishes by marrying Vivekananda from the Dalit community in a self-arranged inter-caste union that ignited immediate backlash.
Facing explicit threats of violence from Prakash and relatives, the couple fled their home and sought refuge with Vivekananda’s relatives in Haveri district, living in hiding for months to evade reprisals.
Police intervened early, conducting counselling sessions for both families and securing a written undertaking from Prakash Gouda to refrain from harassing the couple a standard measure in such disputes, yet one that proved futile.
Despite this, Prakash reportedly visited Vivekananda’s home multiple times earlier in December, including feigned meetings with Manya, building tension before the fatal strike. The couple, perhaps hoping for reconciliation or driven by necessity, returned to Inam-Veerapur village on 8 December, only to face the deadly confrontation less than two weeks later.
This case mirrors a disturbing pattern of honour-based violence in Karnataka, where inter-caste marriages particularly involving Dalits and dominant Lingayat communities often provoke extreme reactions, as seen in prior incidents across Hubballi-Dharwad and neighbouring regions.
Dalit organisations swiftly condemned the killing, labelling it a blatant caste atrocity, and mobilised for protests in Inam-Veerapur and Hubballi on Monday, demanding swift justice, protection for inter-caste couples, and systemic reforms to curb such vigilantism.
As of Monday afternoon, no further official updates on additional arrests or protest developments have emerged, but the incident has sparked wider outrage on social media and among activists.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
This gut-wrenching murder exposes the festering wound of caste prejudice in modern India, where a father’s rage over his daughter’s choice of love overrides the sanctity of life itself, robbing a pregnant woman of her dreams and perpetuating cycles of hatred that divide communities.
The Logical Indian unequivocally condemns such barbarity, reaffirming our unwavering commitment to peace, empathy, dialogue, kindness, and harmonious coexistence as the only paths to true progress urging families, villages, and leaders to embrace inter-caste unions as bridges of unity rather than battlegrounds of bigotry.
