R. Selvi, president of Kavandachipudur village panchayat in Dharapuram panchayat union, on Wednesday described the arrest of the ward member, S. Kuppusamy, under the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as a “small light at the end of a long struggle.”
A member of a Scheduled Caste (SC), she told The Hindu on Wednesday that she was working in an electric crematorium, within Dharapuram municipality limits, prior to becoming the panchayat president. “I was working as an operator in the crematorium for two years till the end of 2018,” she recalled. Her husband V. Ramesh was working as the manager in the crematorium, she said.
Having quit her job in 2018 to look after the family, Ms. Selvi said that her husband encouraged her to contest the rural local body election announced in 2019, where Kavandachipudur village panchayat was announced to be reserved for SC women. “The people were already familiar with us and our service through the crematorium,” she said.
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Hence she decided to contest as an independent candidate in the local body election.
Ms. Selvi alleged that after becoming the panchayat president, she experienced caste-based discrimination, particularly from S. Kuppusamy, member of Ward No. 6 in the village panchayat, who was from a dominant caste. She alleged that in May this year, he used casteist slurs and threatened her in the panchayat office. Ms. Selvi lodged a complaint at the Dharapuram police station and he was booked under the SC/ST Act. However, no action was taken against him, she said.
Ms. Selvi further alleged that on August 14, Gopalakrishnan, an official at the electric crematorium where she used to work, threatened to file a case against her for an alleged chit fund fraud if she did not withdraw her complaint against Kuppusamy. As she attempted to record this in her smartphone, Gopalakrishnan and Kuppusamy allegedly snatched it from her. Distressed, she doused herself in kerosene in a self-immolation bid, but inadvertently ended up drinking a portion of the kerosene, leading to her hospitalisation on August 14 at Dharapuram Government Hospital. She signed the complaint petition from the hospital, based on which the Dharapuram police registered a fresh case on August 14 against Kuppusamy, Gopalakrishnan and an accomplice named Deva.
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Among the three accused, Kuppusamy was arrested on Tuesday. When contacted, Dharapuram Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Jayaram said that the three accused were absconding initially. One has been arrested and the other two accused will be arrested soon, he said.
Citing recent examples of SC women who were panchayat presidents in Tiruvallur and Coimbatore districts and were allegedly subjected to discrimination, Ms. Selvi expressed hope that getting justice in this case would encourage other SC women panchayat presidents in the State to stand up against caste-based discrimination. “I must somehow get justice in this struggle,” she said.