Five families living at ‘Scheduled Castes colony’ in Hosur, Sakleshpur taluk, are a distraught lot. For, “upper caste” people from the village, in an alleged attempt to drive them away, have been using their locality as a cremation ground.
Over the past week, two such cremations have been held in the colony, which came up on vacant government land in recent years.
The bodies of Kale Gowda, who died on March 31, and Doddappachar, who died on April 5, were consigned to flames despite protests from the residents of the colony. The upper castes allegedly removed the fencing behind the houses and claimed that it was land designated for cremation.
Now, with the ashes of the dead still lying in their backyard, the five SC families are seeking justice and demand the State government’s intervention.
Five bodies
The village of 480 people has 126 acres of government land in Survey Number 22. Some people are cultivating the land, while some others have built houses.
Five years ago, the government sanctioned a community hall under the Special Component Plan for villagers belonging to Scheduled Caste communities. Vasanth, Mohan Kumar, Basavaraj, Kumaraswamy, and Suresh built houses near the community hall.
“When we constructed houses, the upper caste people raised objections. Earlier, I had built a thatched hut. Somebody set fire to it. Now I have built a brick wall,” Mr. Vasanth said.
In the past four years, five bodies, including the two in the past week, have been cremated in the locality. “Earlier, the upper caste people cremated bodies in a place quite far from the village, close to the forest area. When we built our houses, they chose to cremate here to evict us,” said Hema, a resident of the colony.
Following the cremation on March 31, Renuka, wife of Mr. Vasanth, filed a complaint with the Yesalur police against five people, including Hosur Gram Panchayat president Zareena Manjunath, under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, four days later, another body was cremated, this time in the presence of the police.
“The police did not come to our rescue when the body was cremated on April 5. In fact, the police forced us to remain silent,” alleged Rukmini, another resident.
‘Meant for cremation’
However, those accused in the matter say the land was designated as a cremation ground many years ago. “We have not cremated in a residential locality. It is land meant for cremation. Four or five people have been creating a problem as they are trying claim the vacant land. They hardly stay put in the makeshift houses they have constructed,” Ms. Manjunath said.
The police have written to the Revenue Department to take action. “There has been a dispute between two groups over the land for a few years. One group claims it is their residential locality. The other group argues that houses are being built on the cremation ground. We have written to the Revenue Department to conduct a survey and demarcate the land suitably,” Superintendent of Police R.K. Shahapurwad said.
