Tension prevails at Munneerpallam near here since Wednesday midnight after three persons, including an ITI student from a Scheduled Caste community, were hacked by an armed gang.
Police said the problem started when the student B. Balamukesh was attacked by a gang belonging to a different caste when he was taking bath in a channel on Wednesday evening. The gang also attacked his friends. The youth, who sustained cut injury, was admitted to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.
In the night, people from his village entered the area where the other caste people live in large numbers. They ransacked the houses and vehicles of those who attacked Balamukesh and also that of others and set on fire two haystacks. While a car and an autorickshaw were badly damaged in the attack, 10 houses with tiled roof were also damaged in stone pelting.
The attackers blocked the road passing through Marudham Nagar demanding arrest of those who attacked Balamukesh. Deputy Inspector General of Police of Tirunelveli Range Praveen Kumar Abinapu, Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Tirunevleli City M. Rajarajan rushed to the spot and held talks with the protestors.
The protestors told them that attack on the SC youths continued since 2019 when Rajamani of Marudham Nagar was murdered. They sought stern action against the attackers and dispersed.
Meanwhile, the other caste people blocked vehicular traffic on Tirunelveli – Papanasam highway demanding the arrest of those who ransacked their houses.
Even as the agitation was going on at Munneerpallam, unidentified persons who entered the Subramaniyapuram Sri Lankan refugee camp attacked Chinnadurai, 55, and Perumal, 65, with sickles and escaped. Agitated over this attack, residents of the refugee camp staged a road roko.
During investigation, police found that those who attacked Balamukesh had attacked Chinnadurai and Perumal also and identified M. Sankaralingam, his brother Arun Pandi and eight others had unleashed the attack. As tension prevails in the area, police had been deployed in large numbers.
Inspector General of Police, South Zone, T.S. Anbu is camping here. On the instruction from Collector V. Vishnu, Sub-Collector Sivakrishnamurthy chaired few meetings on Thursday in which representatives of both sides participated.
While case has been registered against Sanakaralingam, Arun Pandi and eight others, police are on the lookout for 40 persons who ransacked the houses.