Nandakumar, a Dalit youth, was killed over a monetary dispute with a person from an intermediate caste at Pandaarampatti in Thoothukudi district on Friday. His relatives and villagers staged a protest on Saturday. | Photo Credit: N. Rajesh
The recent spike in heinous crimes perpetrated against Dalits in Tamil Nadu, especially in the southern districts and increasingly across other parts, has shown that anti-Dalit violence and discrimination continues to be the Achilles heel of the otherwise well-intentioned Dravidian movement, a champion of social justice, rationalism, and equality in Tamil Nadu for over 100 years.
Political organisations, NGOs, and activists agree that the recent trend of crimes against the Scheduled Castes is noticeable not only due to better and improved reporting of cases, but an actual significant increase in heinous crimes against them in Tamil Nadu.
Five persons, including a seven-year-old boy, belonging to a scheduled caste, were attacked by two youths of the intermediate caste with swords near Perungudi in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai on Monday night.
According to the FIR accessed by indianexpress.com, the three men were identified as Ganapathi Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Ajith Kumar, all daily wage labourers, who were standing near a stage setup for a drama and chatting before heading to work on Monday evening.
Around 7.15 pm, two youths identified as R Mari and K Sasikumar, came on a motorcycle in an inebriated condition and enquired about one Kannapillai. When the labourers replied that they did not know about his whereabouts, it led to an altercation. Soon, one of the accused pulled out a sword and attacked the youths.
The police said the accused inflicted injuries to the victims on their limbs. The seven-year-old too sustained cut injuries on his feet.
Hearing the screams of the victims, the onlookers rushed to the spot but the assailants managed to flee.
Based on a complaint by Ganapathi, the Perungudi police registered a case under Section 294 (b) (sings, recites, or utters any obscene song ballad or words, in or near public place) 307 (attempt to commit murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) 352 (assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and also under the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A senior officer said they have arrested Mari while Sasikumar is absconding. The officer added that three others, Arun Kumar, Sundaramoorthy and Muthusamy, who helped the duo or were somehow connected with the incident, were also arrested. A manhunt is on to nab Sasikumar.
“We went there and found some facts. The victims basically do flex banner works and Mari is a water tanker driver while Sasikumar works as a mason. The incident shows how much they have been influenced since their early age by caste pride,” he said.
In a statement Kathir said that the ‘Aruval Kalacharam’ (sickle/sword culture implying people taking weapons in their hands to settle scores) has started to surface even in Madurai after it began in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi.
He noted that the accused should not be released on bail and the government should provide a compensation of Rs 3 lakh each to all the four victims.
MADURAI: Police registered a case against two caste Hindus for assaulting five persons from the SC community, including a 7-year-old boy, in Perungudi on Monday evening.
According to police, Ajith (28), Vijayakumar (27), Ganapathikumar (28), Periyasamy (60) and his seven-year-old grandson sustained minor cut injuries and are undergoing treatment at Government Rajaji Hospital.
Police are on the lookout for suspects R Mari and K Sasikumar. According to sources, the accused came to Perungudi mandhai around 8 pm on Monday where Ajith, Vijayakumar and Ganapathikumar were sitting. They asked them about the whereabouts of Kannan, who also belonged to the SC community. A wordy duel ensued, following which the caste Hindus assaulted Ajith, Vijayakumar and Ganapathikumar with a sickle.
When Periyasamy tried to intervene, the accused assaulted him and his grandson. Perungudi police registered a case under different sections of SC/ST Act and IPC sections including 307 IPC. Two special teams have been formed to nab the accused.
VCK staged a protest in Melur on Tuesday demanding the immediate arrest of the suspects. Executive director of Evidence A Kathir in a release condemned the rise in caste atrocities in Tamil Nadu.
Two instances of violence against Dalits in various parts of Tamil Nadu in the last week were brought to light by activists and protests by members of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), an ally of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
On Monday night, two men belonging to the Thevar community attacked five Dalits including a seven-year-old boy with knives in Madurai district. In another case, a group of around 20 men belonging to the Gounder community assaulted and urinated on two Dalit men on November 20 in Erode district.
The two incidents came to light even after six men belonging to the Most Backward Community were detained under Goondas Act on November 10, for disrobing and urinating on two Dalit men.
A fact-finding team of Madurai based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Evidence visited Perungudi in the district on Tuesday and found that the accused were intoxicated and were in search of a Dalit man. The accused R Mari and R Sasikumar asked for the whereabouts of the Dalit man A Kannan to three locals from the same community- Ajit, Vijay and Ganapathi.
Madurai police arrested one of the two accused on Wednesday. They have been booked for attempted murder and one accused is still absconding. Police and activists said that there has been no motive established in this case. “We have arrested one today and we will arrest the other accused soon,” a senior police officer in Madurai said.
In the other crime in Erode, according to the police complaint filed, a group of Gounder men assaulted two Dalits who are goat grazers because they saw them consume liquor. They got into an altercation on November 20 in Gobichettipalayam in the district which continued to the next day. The victims lodged a complaint based on which police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against 20 people but no arrests have been made so far. The accused have given a counter complaint that the Dalits tried to steal poultry from them. The district authorities conducted a ‘peace committee meeting’ on Tuesday between the Dalits and the Gounder community but the former is demanding swift arrests in the case. “We are getting to the bottom of the case and working on restoring peace,” a police officer said.
In the Erode crime, the complainant said, “When we felt like we were getting unconscious and asked for water, they urinated in our mouths.” “We were beaten with iron rods until we fainted,” he added.
Various sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were invoked in both cases.
In a shocking incident, five persons, including a five-year-old boy, belonging to a Scheduled Caste, sustained bleeding injuries when two youth attacked them with swords at Perungudi near here on Monday night.
According to police, the youth came to the ground in Perungudi on a motorcycle at 7.15 p.m. When they saw a few people sitting on the drama stage, they enquired them about one Kannan. When the locals said they did not know about Kannan, a wordy quarrel erupted between them, Superintendent of Police R. Shiva Prasad said.
The duo suddenly pulled out swords and attacked M. Ganapathi Kumar, 28, Ajith and Vijayakumar. Periyasamy, who was carrying on his shoulders his five-year-old grandson, tried to prevent the attack. The assailants attempted to attack him too. When the man tried to escape, the blade inflicted cut injuries on the feet of the boy.
The accused, R. Mari, a water tanker driver, and K. Sasikumar, a mason, both from an intermediate caste, fled the scene. Mari had a criminal case pending against him. The injured have been admitted to Government Rajaji Hospital.
The SP said the motive for the attack was under investigation. The police were on the lookout for the assailants and also Kannan. Police pickets have been posted at the village.
Perungudi police have registered a case of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
On Tuesday, A. Kathir, executive director of Madurai-based NGO Evidence, said after Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi, attacks against SC people appeared to have surfaced in Madurai.
The five Dalits were dangerously attacked by two men, who had not even spared a little boy. A fact-finding team from Evidence visited Perungudi and found that the boy was suffering from fever and his grandfather was carrying him when they were attacked.
The team found that the assailants were drunk and used unparliamentary words. The victims did not know why they were attacked, the team members said.
The SC people were under constant fear and inaction by law-enforcers had encouraged the attackers, Mr. Kathi said, and demanded their immediate arrest.
Perungudi police should be directed to speed up investigation and file a charge sheet within two months. The State government should ensure that the accused were not granted bail until charge sheet was filed, he stressed.
He urged the government to give ₹3 lakh compensation each to the four adult victims of the attack and ₹5 lakh to the boy.
PUDUKKOTTAI : A police team led by Keeranur DSP R Sengottuvelvan is on the hunt for suspects for allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old boy from a dalit community and abetting his suicide for speaking to a girl from kallar community. The DSP said, “The accused will be in custody within a couple of days. The suicide of V Vishnukumar, 16, from Adi Dravidar Street in Themmavur near Kulathur in Pudukkottai district, on November 3 has turned out to be a case of caste-based atrocity.
His mother, Uma, 40, and family have alleged that he hanged himself at his home just hours after being physically assaulted and verbally abused by a boy and several others from the kallar community near a library in Keeranur on Friday.<br>Initially, the Udaiyalipatti police in Pudukkottai registered the case as a suicide. Later, they modified the charges to include abetment of suicide, verbal abuse, and voluntarily causing harm under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.<br>Evidence, an NGO, also took up the issue and conducted a field investigation in the village on Sunday. Executive director A Kathir of Evidence issued a report and held a press conference in Madurai on Monday. He said Vishnukumar’s fellow students at the Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School in Keeranur revealed that he was attacked for speaking to a girl from the upper caste. “He was attacked around 9 am and he suffered mental agony for two hours before ending his life by 11.30 am. A WhatsApp message sent by the boy to one of his friends just before his suicide also indicated that he took this drastic step due to caste-based discrimination,” Kathir said.
Evidence called on the state government to provide a compensation of 25 lakh and a monthly pension of 15,000 to the boy’s family.
MADURAI: In the wake of the suicide of a 16-year-old boy from the scheduled caste (SC) community in Pudukkottai district, executive director of the NGO Evidence, Kathir, said on Monday that the state government must declare the district as one prone to caste atrocities.
Addressing media persons in Madurai, Kathir said the assault on the SC boy for speaking to a girl from the caste Hindu community highlights untouchability.
“These incidents in school raise concerns on whether there is an increase in such attitude among children. The district police altered the suicide case to SC/ST Act (Prevention of Atrocities) and 306 IPC, but none of the minor suspects were arrested. The state government needs to declare Pudukkottai, Madurai, Tirunelveli, and Thoothukudi as districts prone to caste atrocities. A special wing must also be constituted to monitor caste issues in these districts”, he said.
The formation of the Justice Chandru committee, Kathir said, to eradicate caste-based differences among students in schools and colleges, also did not have an impact. Kathir said the state government failed to prevent such atrocities. “Caste-based atrocities have been on a rise in Tamil Nadu, especially in the last two years, with the number of such cases increasing from 1,200 to 1,400 a year, to 2,000 cases a year,” Kathir said.
He added that when the DMK was in opposition, it said that it would bring a law criminalising honour killings, but when Evidence submitted a draft, the DMK government did not take any steps. Appreciating the state government for constituting vigilance and monitoring committees on state and the district levels, Kathir noted that the number of members in these committees had witnessed an increase.
However, he added that the district level committees are more prone to closing SC/ST cases as ‘mistakes of fact’. Also explaining the reason for calling CM MK Stalin to visit Vengaivayal, Kathir said it is because he is the chairperson of the state vigilance and monitoring committee. “When J Jayalaithaa was chief minister, she once visited the spot and handed over compensation,” he said.
In another shocking caste atrocity in Tamil Nadu, a 16-year-old Dalit boy in Pudukottai district died by suicide after he was assaulted by a caste Hindu schoolmate for speaking with a caste Hindu girl. Activists have urged the state police to investigate and book the other children involved in the crime and to declare Pudukottai a caste-atrocity-prone area. On November 3, V Vishnu Kumar, a Class 11 student, who belonged to the Paraiyar community, was assaulted and verbally abused with casteist slurs near Keeranur library while he was on the way to school. The perpetrator was his schoolmate who belongs to the dominant Kallar community. Upset over the incident, the Dalit student returned to his house in Koppampatti of Kulathoor block and died by suicide a few hours later. The Paraiyar community is categorized as Scheduled Caste in Tamil Nadu while Kallars come under Denotified Communities (DNC) within the Most Backward Class (MBC) category in the state.
Vishnu was reportedly friends with the girl who belonged to the Kallar community. They had studied in the same school till class 10 and had remained in touch even after he moved to a different school for his higher secondary education. Angered by this friendship, the Kallar students warned him not to speak to the girl on various occasions. On November 3, when Vishnu was on his way to school, he was beaten up by a Kallar student who also had a group of other Kallar boys with him. Around 11.00 a.m. on the same day, he returned to his house and took his own life. Before he died by suicide, Vishnu told his grandfather what happened to him. His grandfather tried to pacify Vishnu and promised him that they would file a police complaint against the perpetrators. The investigation report and the FIR, however, mentions only one perpetrator.
Evidence, a Madurai-based Non-Government Organisation (NGO), conducted a fact-finding exercise in Koppampatti village, and has urged the state government to arrest all the perpetrators. Kathir, Executive Director of Evidence, said that despite eyewitnesses alleging that there were other boys with the main perpetrator, none of them have been booked or detained.
Udayalipatti police have registered a case and booked the perpetrators under sections 294(b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 306 (Abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3(1)(r) (intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe), 3(1)(s) (abuses any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by caste name in any place within public view) and 3(2)(va) (commits any offence against a person or property, knowing that such person is a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or such property belongs to such member) of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Evidence has also demanded that the government give Rs 25 lakh as ex-gratia to the family members of the victim and an additional Rs 15,000 per month as pension to his parents. Pointing to the repeated incidents of caste atrocities in Pudukkottai, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi, Kathir urged the state government to categorise these three districts as atrocity-prone zones in Tamil Nadu. He further demanded that the state government form a special police unit to monitor and prevent caste atrocities in areas that are known for such violence.
The fact-finding report also points out that around 106 caste-based atrocities against Dalits took place in Pudukkottai district between November 2022 and August 2023. This accounts for 10% of the total registered atrocity cases in the state. Pudukkottai now tops all districts in Tamil Nadu when it comes to caste-based atrocities, the report further notes.