Hyderabad: A woman critically injured in an attack by her father continued to be in a serious condition yesterday, doctors at Yashoda hospital said. However, her husband B Sandeep was discharged after treatment

Manohara Chary attacked the newly-weds with a sickle on a busy road at Erragadda on Wednesday evening in what is being seen as an attempted “honour killing”. Chary was upset with Madhavi for marrying a Dalit youth.

According to hospital authorities, a team of doctors including neurosurgeons, cardiovascular experts and plastic surgeon performed a 10-hour long operation on Madhavi Wednesday night. She suffered a deep gash on the neck severing blood vessels which supply blood to the brain. Her ear was also split and she suffered major loss of blood by the time she was brought to hospital.

Deputy Commissioner of police West Zone AR Srinivas who produced the accused before the media said that Chary was angry with his daughter for marrying someone outside her caste.

“However he had no intention of attacking Sandeep and only wanted to kill his daughter”, the DCP said. Sandeep became a target of his fury when he tried to save his wife, police said.

Police have booked a case of attempted murder and another case under SC ST prevention of atrocities act against Chary who surrendered himself after the gruesome attack. He was produced in a local court which remanded him to judicial custody.

According to preliminary investigations, Madhavi and Sadeep were in love for quite some time and she left her parental home when her father began forcing her to marry another boy. The young couple got married ten days ago without informing her father. Sandeep a graduation student was also working part-time at a local hotel delivering biryani parcels.

Madhavi’s father Chary told police that after the marriage of his daughter against his wishes he had gone into depression and had started drinking heavily. “I was drinking for three days before the incident. I don’t know what happened (at the time of attack”, he told police.

Breathanalyser tests confirmed that he was heavily drunk when he attacked his daughter. He had stolen the sickle from a coconut seller when the shop-owner was away.

However there were many indications suggesting that Chary had planned the attack in a meticulous way. Two days ago he visited his daughter’s home and carried a parcel of biryani as a gift and also invited the couple to his home. Sandeep was at home when he visited them.

Apparently Chary was influenced by the “honour killing” incident of Miryalaguda when a wealthy businessman Maruti Rao hired a killer to eliminate his son-in-law as he was unhappy with the intercaste marriage. During his visit to the home of Madhavi a TV channel was reporting the Miryalaguda case and Chary commented, “I am not as cruel as Maruti Rao”. However in reality he acted brutally by personally carrying out the attack.

In a well-planned move he invited the young couple to Erragadda on Wednesday evening for shopping as he wanted to buy new clothes for them. And when they came, he took out the sickle from his bag and attacked Madhavi and Sandeep.

Sandeep who was recuperating at home told the media that the caste system had turned out to be their enemy. He alleged that caste hatred was the main reason behind the attack as he was a Dalit. “He attacked with the encouragement of Madhavi’s mother”, he alleged.

“I met Madhavi for the first time in 2013 and gradually our friendship turned into love. When in 2015 Madhavi’s family came to know about our affair, they came to my house and threatened us saying they will give their daughter to a beggar of their caste instead of marrying her to me”, Sandeep said.