Wednesday's cold blooded murder of Tilakavati, a 19-year-old college student in a village near Virudachalam in Cuddalore district, substantiates the fear among social scientists and psychologists that there is something abnormal with the youth in the State. Tilakavati, ailing from a poor family was a graduate student and wanted to take up a civil service job to help her father, a tea vendor who was struggling to meet both the end of life.
Dr S Tamadoss, founder of the PMK asked the State and Central Governments to address the grey areas in the law concerning safety of girls and women in the State. "This is not an isolated incident and Tamil Nadu has been witnessing such murders over the last so many years. There is a definite pattern in all these murders which is dangerous to all womenfolk in the State," said Dr Ramdoss.
Tilakavati was murdered by Akash, a school drop out of the same age, for rebuffing his advances towards her. Both of them were class mates in school before Akash dropped out of studies and started moving with his friends for a carefree life. When the boy sounded about his love for her, Tilakavati told him that her top priority was to complete her studies in order to find out a job to minimise the hardship of her parents, according to one of her close relations.