On this day, twenty two years ago, the remote village of Tsunduru in Tenali revenue division was witness to a brutal massacre of Dalits in a carnage unleashed by socially-dominant communities.
On Tuesday, families residing in the village converged at ‘Raktha Sketharam’, the place where the bodies of Dalits were buried, and offered their homage to the departed souls. A meeting was held in which Dalit Bahujan Front convener Korivi Vinaya Kumar and others spoke.
But years after the incident, Dalit associations say justice is still eluding them. An appeal seeking life imprisonment to 35 persons who were convicted and awarded simple imprisonment by Special Court Judge Anis in the year 2007 is still pending in the High Court. The special court awarded life imprisonment to 21 persons. The State government had not appointed a successor to special public prosecutor B. Chandrasekhar, who died in January this year.
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Jaladi Wilson, convener of Tsunduru Dalit Victims’ Association, told
Under pressure from Dalit associations, the State government established a special court under the provisions of SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Tsunduru to try the accused. On a tense day on August 1, 2007, special court judge Anis convicted 56 accused, out of which 21 were awarded life imprisonment and 35 simple imprisonments. It let off 115 others citing lack of evidence.