Athimoor along the Polur-Jamunamarathur Road, where an elderly woman was lynched on May 9, has turned into a ghost village. Hundreds of residents of Athimoor and neighbouring villages have fled their homes, fearing arrest.
It was on this busy stretch that runs through the village that residents swarmed to stop a car carrying five persons on May 9. In the next few minutes, horror unfolded on the road as they assaulted the quintet, including Rukmani from Chennai, mistaking them for child abductors.
Empty streets and locked houses are what remain of the villages now. There is little or no movement of vehicles, barring those plying to Jamunamarathur. On the side of the deserted Polur-Jamunamarathur Road near Kaliyam village lie little pieces of the damaged car in which the victims were travelling. The mangled remains of the red car are outside the Polur police station.
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Abandoned homes
Residents of at least eight villages in Tindivanam panchayat abandoned their homes overnight. This included Tindivanam, Kaliyam, Athimoor, Ganeshapuram, Kamatchipuram, Thamankottanparai, Jamankulam and Jameenpuram. There are nearly 800 households and 4,000 residents in these villages.
“Several families from these villages abandoned their homes and fled following the incident. It was a shock to me when I came to know what happened on that fateful day. Athimoor is in the news for all wrong reasons. The shops remain closed since then. The police are visiting the villages regularly in search of those involved in the lynching,” said Rajendran, a resident, who claimed he was not in the village when the incident took place.
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The villagers have taken refuge in the houses of their relatives including in neighbouring districts.
On May 9, Rukmani, a resident of Pallavaram in Chennai along with four of her relatives visited Athimoor in search of their “kuladeivam” (family deity) temple. They stopped the car at Jamankulam, about one to two km away from Athimoor, and asked for directions.
“One of them gave chocolates to two children playing on the spot. Their grandmother shouted that they were child kidnappers when they left the area. Immediately, they called somebody in Athimoor and informed them about the car and the persons travelling in it. The part of the road near Athimoor-Kaliyam villages is always busy, and hence, a huge crowd gathered and blocked the car as the information spread,” a villager said.