Dalit dad traces son after wife abandons them

Chennai: In yet another sordid tale of caste discrimination fracturing love, an upper-caste girl deserted her Dalit husband and even lied to him that their baby had died at birth so as to obliterate the sole symbol of their romance gone sour.

It took him about 20 days of relentless pursuit to discover the shocking truth that her family had actually given away the infant boy to a Cuddalore government hospital watchman who sold him to a childless Muslim couple in Chennai, said Ranjith Kumar, 21, a furniture salesman at Kallakurichi (Villupuram district).

“My wife left me under pressure from her Vanniar family soon after delivering the baby at the Cuddalore government hospital in September last year.

We were in deep love. We discontinued our college studies and got married. When she became pregnant, her mother took her saying she wanted to take care of the delivery, but they destroyed our love just because I am a Dalit”, Ranjith told DC.

He said he had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that his in-laws had abused him naming his caste and separated him from his wife.

He recalled that after his wife refused to return from her mother’s place, he suspected she was lying about the baby dying at birth and undertook his own probe.

He checked at the hospital where the delivery had taken place and found out that the baby was born alive and discharged healthy.

After relentless efforts, he tracked down the watchman to whom his in-laws had given away the newborn and persuaded him to reveal the identity of the childless Chennai couple to whom he had sold the baby. Following his complaint, the police traced the child and the foster family.

They were brought before the child welfare committee at Perambalur, where his wife too was summoned. “My wife declared she did not want to have anything to do with me and the baby. So I took the infant home, where my mother is helping me to bring him up”, Ranjith said in bitter tone.

To a question, he said after the child welfare committee handed over the child to him on October 12 (2013), the foster mother approached him begging for the baby. “I lost my wife. I did not want to lose my son as well, so I told her I’m sorry”.