Mystery deepens over Illavarasan's death, letter found

Bangalore, July 8:Even as Illavarasan's family was coming to terms with his death, another shock awaited them-a death note left by him. His mother, particularly, is spell bound that her son could have taken such an extreme step as she was convinced that he could never have committed suicide.

A four page letter, allegedly, written by Ilavarasan holds no one responsible for his death. Recovered by the Special Investigation Team probing the case, the letter further explained how he had fallen in love with Divya and how they married.

How the letter was recovered is still a mystery. SP Asra Garg, however, said that it was possible due to a 'secret' information.

Experts claim that the handwriting in the letter matched with that of the youth, after having it compared with his notes and notebooks. The letter will now be submitted in court, along with the post-mortem and other relevant reports, Garg said.

The autopsy was performed yesterday and the reports confirmed that the youth had died of a "serious head injury" even as the probe was handed over from the government railway police to local police.

Later last week, the Madras High Court had directed the state government to preserve his body till Tuesday for the post-moterm and give the deceased's father a copy of the report, along with video footage of the procedure.

Given the snesitivity of the issue, especially when the marriage of Divya and Illavarasan triggered anti-Dalit violence in three villages of Dharmapuri last year, the court had directed the National Commission for Scheduled Caste to probe the matter.

The team visited the medical college where Illavarasan's body was preserved, apart from speaking to his parents residing in Natham colony. Sivanna, a member of the NCSC team said that they were not satisfied with the rehabilitation of Dalit victims in the violence-hit areas in the district and advised the state administration to work on it. The panel members, further, held discussions with the newly appointed district collector K Vivekanandan, SP Asra Garg and other top notches in the administration.

Anti-Dalit sentiments still persist in many villages in India and inter-caste marriages are still not taken sportingly in many communities. The marriage of Divya and Illavarasan is a case in point. However, the death of the youth seems to be a suicide, a day after Divya said that she would never come back to Illavarasan.