TIRUNELVELI
Tension prevailed in a Tirunelveli village on Monday night when a section of residents opposed a funeral procession passing through their street and subsequent burial of the body.
Manur police registered a case against 84 villagers and arrested one person on the charge of preventing the burial of a Christian in the village. Palayamkottai police also registered a case against the villagers and a few BJP cadre, who laid a siege to the Collector’s Bungalow on Monday night in protest against registration of the case and arrest.
When Pitchaiah alias Savarimuthu (50) of Nadu Pillaiyarkulam near Manur died on Monday after a brief illness, the villagers opposed the plan of his family to take the body to the burial ground through their street, saying Savarimuthu had embraced Christianity and stopped contributing to the temple festival.
As tension erupted, Tirunelveli Revenue Divisional Officer Mythili and Thazhaiyoothu DSP Ponnarasu held talks with the villagers, who were by then opposing the burial of the body in the village. As the talks failed, officials made arrangements for taking the body on another route. However, the villagers opposed this proposal too and blocked the street in the night. The police used mild force to disburse the protesters and made arrangements for the burial.
Besides deploying force at Nadu Pillaiyarkulam, Manur police registered a case against 84 persons from Nadu Pillaiyarkulam and Mela Pillaiyarkulam for preventing government officials from discharging their duty and the burial of Savarimuthu. They also arrested M. Subramanian, village head of Mela Pillaiyarkulam.
Agitated over this, a group of villagers, along with BJP cadre, laid siege to the Collector’s Bungalow in the night. After dispersing them, the police registered a case against 60 persons, including BJP functionaries T.V. Suresh and Balaji Krishnasamy, Hindu Munnani office-bearers Vinodh and Kutralanathan and RSS office-bearer Muthukumar.
Against this backdrop, around 100 people from Mela Pillaiyarkulam and Nadu Pillaiyarkulam, along with BJP cadre, came to the Collectorate on Tuesday to submit a petition seeking action against the police and revenue officials.
