caste

Rather than 'trimming the fat', as some politicians delicately put it, he said he would take a chainsaw to ministries, subsidies and the ruling political class he derided as "la casta" - the caste.

"The Indians, he said, were a privileged caste during his youth, and it gave him immense pleasure that the tables had turned and they now came to the Gulf as servants."

Throughout his career, he fought to reform Hindu laws of the time on marriage and women's rights and to abolish the caste system.

The couple's families demanded that the case be handed over to the federal police for a proper investigation and met influential caste leaders and federal ministers in their home state to lobby for this.

The girl is from the Dalit community, which is at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.