Hyderabad Lynching: Nagaraju’s Muslim wife says she begged onlookers to save husband from her relatives

Sulthana, wife of Nagaraju, a 25-year-old man who was brutally killed at a busy crossing in Hyderabad by his Muslim brother-in law said that she had repeatedly pleaded, begged for help from passers-by but no one came to help save her husband. “If someone is being killed in front of everyone’s eyes, can’t they see it? Why didn’t anyone help save my Raju, I begged and pleaded all,” Ashrin Sulthana (aka Pallavi) said. Talking to reporters, Sulthana further said, “I even fell down on top of him so that I can take some of the beatings instead of him. One person pulled me away while another continued to beat him.” On 4 May, around 9 pm, Billapuram Nagaraju was brutally murdered at the Saroornagar Tehsildar office in Hyderabad over interfaith marriage. In an interview to News18, she said: “They broke his head with an iron rod. No one came to help us…Police arrived 30 minutes after the crime…The attackers came on two separate bikes.” Sulthana further claimed that before their marriage, her brother tried to kill her and even attempted to hang her twice. “I fled to Hyderabad and we got married in an Arya Samaj temple…We changed our SIM card so that our family could not contact us,” she added.

Sulthana said her mother had warned her that her brother would kill them if they get married. “Immediately after our marriage… we went to the SP (superintendent of police) office… We also signed a bond… We informed the police about the threat from my brother,” she said. Sulthana and Nagaraju, who worked as car salesman, were classmates in school and college and were in love for more than five years. They got married in January this year defying her family. Talking to news agency ANI, Sulthana said her husband told her brother earlier that he will convert to Muslim and will marry her, but he didn’t approve.

Nagaraju was pushed to the ground and was beaten with rods and stabbed by a knife by her wife’s brother and relatives. On Wednesday evening, the couple had left their home on their bike but was stopped midway by two men. They dragged Nagaraju and started attacking him. Large number of people gathered at the spot, but no one tried to stop the attack. Some of them were even recording the crime in their mobile phones. Meanwhile, the police have arrested Sulthana’s brother Syed Mobin Ahmed and Mohammed Masood Ahmed for the crime/ The cops said they committed the murder as they did not approve of the inter-faith marriage. Nagaraju belonged to the Mala community, which is categorised as Scheduled Caste. A case was registered under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015. The case would be tried in a fast-track court, Deputy Commissioner of Police (LB Nagar Zone) Sunpreet Singh said. Two days after the incident of a dishonour killing, Hyderabad remains in shock and outrage. People from across the country have taken to social media demanding strict action against those accused. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.