Chennai, March 14: A recently married Dalit student was hacked to death before his caste Hindu wife on a busy Tamil Nadu street yesterday, prompting the girl to accuse her family of honour killing.

"The same group of attackers had come to our home two months ago and tried to take me away in a car but fled when I began shouting. We met the local police and sought protection," S. Kausalya, 19, injured in the attack, told a Tamil TV channel from her hospital bed.

Three men had arrived on a motorcycle and attacked V. Sankar, 22, and Kausalya with sickles around 2pm in front of a shop at Udumalpet town, 400km from Chennai. None from the Sunday crowd at the shopping district seems to have intervened.

Sankar died on the way to hospital while Kausalya, who suffered head wounds, is out of danger.

Police said the girl's family, who belong to the politically influential intermediate caste of Thevars, had opposed the marriage and threatened Kausalya with harm if she did not return to them.

A case has been registered against unknown people for murder and violation of the SC/ST atrocities law. The police said they were investigating whether Kausalya's family hired the killers.

Kausalya's father, C. Gopalasamy, surrendered before a court in Madurai today. He denied his involvement in the attack and said he was surrendering only for fear of reprisals.

He was remanded in judicial custody till March 21. The police have arrested two men they suspect of involvement in the murder.

A surveillance camera installed in the locality shows the gang stalking the couple and pouncing as they wait to cross the street. The attackers later flee on their motorbike, carrying their bloodstained weapons.

Kausalya said she and Sankar had fallen in love while studying at a private engineering college in Pollachi. They married eight months ago, ignoring objections from Kausalya's family.

Gopalasamy then lodged a police complaint accusing Sankar of kidnapping his daughter but during the inquiry, Kausalya proved that she was an adult and had married of her own will.

Kausalya, then a first-year student, gave up her studies and took up a job with a private firm to support Sankar, who was in the final year.

Sankar's elder sister Ponni alleged that Kausalya's family had sent several go-betweens to coax and bully her into returning to them and had offered Sankar's family Rs 10 lakh in a trade-off.

"But she had refused as she really was in love with my brother," Ponni said.

Tiruppur district superintendent of police Sarojkumar Thakur said that six teams had been formed to catch the killers. "Hired mercenaries seem to have carried out the killing. We hope to catch them with the help of the video footage," he said.

Abductions and honour killings aren't unknown in Tamil Nadu, where inter-caste marriages are rarer compared with any other south Indian state, social scientist K. Srinivasan said.

"In spite of nearly five decades of rule by Dravidian parties and the influence of the rationalism preached by social reformer Periyar, only 3 per cent of marriages in the state take place between different castes," Srinivasan said.

Just 1.66 per cent of Dalit men who marry have brides from a higher caste, he added.

Four years ago, a government panel had recommended a "comprehensive, standalone law" on honour killings that handed equal punishment to the killers, plotters and the instigators at kangaroo courts, if any. It had also called for protection of threatened couples against false charges such as kidnapping and for safe houses to be provided to them.

So far, the government has not acted on the suggestion.