NCSC suspects ‘external force’ behind Anitha’s death

September 28, 2017 12:42 am | Updated 12:42 am IST - CHENNAI

The vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, L. Murugan, at a press conference here on Wednesday, said that an “external force” may have been involved in Dalit student S. Anitha’s death.

Stating that the commission had asked the Superintendent of Police (SP) and the District Collector to file a report, he said, “We have received the report from them. They have given us an interim report. Inquiries are on. After we receive the inquiry report, we will talk about our next course of action and submit our recommendations to the government.”

The SP and the Collector said that they were waiting for the medical analysis report in the case, he added.

Stating that the members of the commission had spoken to Anitha’s family, Mr. Murugan said that she was eligible for degrees in veterinary science, agriculture and aeronautical engineering at MIT. “She had already prepared to join a BVSc course, and in that situation, why should she attempt this [suicide]? Did someone provoke her? We have asked the SP to look into that angle. I think she could have been threatened. External force was there,” he said.

Stating that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was essential as students needed to be able to compete at the national level, Mr. Murugan pointed out that Madhya Pradesh had coaching centres for SC/ST students from Class XIII onwards. “Here [in Tamil Nadu] also, we should prepare our students early for IIT, NEET and the common law entrance [test]. There should be coaching centres,” he said.

Mr. Murugan also spoke of the prevalence of atrocities against Dalits in the State and related issues such as the filing of cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the disbursal of compensation to the victims. Stating that inspections had been carried out in eight districts, he said that the commission had received over 5,000 petitions alleging atrocities.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.