The State government should deal with an iron hand against people who attack Dalits as more reports of attacks are coming in from the Cauvery delta region, said A. Kathir, Executive Director, Evidence, an NGO, on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters, he said that following a complaint that Rahul, a 22-year-old Dalit youth, was beaten by an armed gang on February 1 in Thanjavur district, a fact-finding team from Evidence visited the victim in hospital and also spoke with his parents, friends and relatives.
According to Rahul, now under treatment at the Government Hospital, Thanjavur, he had been living in Konur village with his relative Lakshmanan for the last three months. His parents lived in Poondi village in Ammapet in the district. Along with Lakshmanan, Rahul worked as a daily wage earner. His job was to lift sand from the river bed into trucks and tractors belonging to an individual, Vikky of Mariamman Koil Street in Konur village.
On February 1, when Rahul, along with a few co-workers went to Vikky's house to ask for the wage arrears of ₹8,000 due to them, Vikky got annoyed. After taking Rahul to a secluded place near the Konur burial ground, Vikky and a few others assaulted him with iron rods and wooden logs. Since they had tied his eyes with a piece of cloth, Rahul could not identify the attackers. However, he was sure they were all accomplices of Vikky, he told the fact-finding team.
Further, according to the FIR, he was taken in a car to Vikky’s private farm in Kulichapattu village and beaten. Some of the attackers had made him stand naked and videographed him, while he was being attacked, Rahul claimed and added that to set him free, Vikky and his accomplices, all caste Hindus, had urged him to confess that he had stolen ₹50,000 from his relative Lakshmanan’s house. In a bid to escape from the beating, he agreed to confess, only after which the attackers had let him go. As the information reached his parents, Gunasekaran, his father, informed the Ammapet police.
Even as the police booked a case based on the confession from Rahul and arrested Vikky and six others under IPC Sections 147, 148, 294 (b), 323, 324 and 307 of IPC and under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Amendment Act, 2015, when Rahul came to know that Vikky's friends had posted the video on WhatsApp and other social media, he was upset and consumed rat poison. His parents rushed him to the Government Hospital.
A police officer in Ammapet police station said that they had not received any complaint from Vikky or others that Rahul had stolen ₹50,000 from the house of Lakshmanan. “If that was true, they would have complained on February 1 itself,” said Mr. Kathir and demanded the arrest of the remaining three accused in connection with the case.
The team members said that it was only on December 26, 2020 a youth, Sivakumar, was tied to a lamp post and attacked in the town. Crimes against Dalits in the delta district have been on the rise as caste Hindus described themselves as “zamindars” and “panniyars.” Hence, they accused the Dalit youths, who questioned them about their rights. In this case, Rahul had asked for the wage arrears, which had irked his employer, they added.
Demanding that the State government give ₹10 lakh to Rahul as compensation, Mr. Kathir urged the police to secure the absconding accused at the earliest.
