K. Perumal, resident of Mudalipatti village, Perilavanpatti Panchayat, Ettayapuram Taluk, Thoothukudi district, belongs to Dalit Arunthathiyar community. He is a Cobbler and a daliy wage labour. In the past there were aroung 15 dalit families were living in this village. As there were no basic facilities like road, drinking water and electricity, most of the dalit families left the village. But Perumal remained in this village. In this village, Dalits were not allowed to fetch water from the public tape. During the funeral, Dalits were subjected to play drums and to announce the death news. During the panchayat president election, he worked infavour of his Master. But his master failed and Stephen Raj was elected as Panchayat president. yabysAs Perumal worked infavour his contestant, Stephen was acrimonious against Perumal. When Perumal asked Stephen to provide electricity facility to his house, Stephen verbally abused him referring derogatory regarding caste. Stephen denied work to Perumal and his family under the NREGA Scheme. Stephen discriminated and denied the benefits of government schemes to Perumal. Hence on 27/09/2010, Perumal, his family staged a hunger strike seeking provision of basic facilities and job under NREGA Scheme.

Legal Standard Breached:

1.       No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to - (a)  access  to  shops,  public  restaurants,  hotels  and  places  of  public entertainment. (15 (2)(a,b) of IC-FR).
2.       A person, who is not a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, who intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste in any place of public view, is guilty of an offence under the Act ( sec. 3(1)(x) SC/ST (PoA) Act).
3.       Whoever, being a public servant but not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, willfully neglects his/her duties required to be performed by him/her under this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year [sec. 4 SC/ST (PoA) Act].
4.       No one shall be deprived of his/her right to life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary detention or imprisonment [Art. 21 IC-FR, Art. 9 UDHR, & Art. 9(1) ICCPR].
5.       Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person [Arts. 3 UDHR, Art. 6(1) ICCPR & Art. 5(b) CERD].
6.       Whoever denies a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe any customary right of passage to a place of public resort or obstructs such member so as to prevent him from using or having access to a place of public resort to which other members of public or any section thereof have a right to use or access to; - - shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years and with fine. (sec. 3(1)(xiv) SC/ST PoA Act).

On the eve of Ganesh festival on 22^nd September 2010 the Dalits went into the main village and participated in the festival. There was the auction of Laddu( Sweet). The Dalits participated in the auction and ultimately won the auction and purchased the main Laddu for Rs. 16000/-, small one for Rs 3000/- and an apple for Rs 1000/- on behalf of Ambedkar Youth Association. This irritated the Reddy (dominant) community. The immersion procession started at Chenivelli and reached near Andhra Bank, Chevella for immersion around 8.30 pm. The dalit youth also joined the procession and started to distribute the laddu to the Reddys. The Reddys said “Vorai Mala Madiga mundakodakallara meru laddu pedithe memu thinala, meru matho dance chestara ani mammulanu meda battukuni bayatiki nettaru” (The Reddys said You Malas and Madiga sons of bitches, should we eat the laddu you give and are we to dance alongwith you and necked out the dalit youth). Later the dalit youth lodged a complaint in Chevella PS. On 23^rd September 2010 the Reddys forced them for a compromise and asked to withdraw the complaint. The Dalits agreed for it and have said to discuss about the compromise on the next day.

Brief details of the incident:

On 23^rd September the MPTC and the village Sarpanch proposed for compromise. The dalits said that the Reddys should come to them, catch hold of their legs and ask for pardon. The Reddys rejected and said to the Dalits to go for case. Around 7.30 pm on the same day discussions were going on near the house of Byagari Sayanna. Suddenly Patlammagari Prabhakar Reddy and 5 others came and started attacking the Dalits. Immediately 26 others also joined them and attacked with sticks. The Dalits ran into the houses of the BCs and bolted the doors. The Reddys broke open the doors and beat both the Dalits and BCs saying why you have not withdrawn the complaint. Later they threatened the Dalits of dire consequences and left away. The youth went to the house of Sarpanch for help. Though he was inside the house, his wife said that he was not there. Later all the women went to his house around 11 pm and he came out and informed to the police over phone. The police came along with the 108 ambulance and moved 11 dalits and 2 BCs to the hospital and registered a case.

The other reason behind the attack was that the dalits are not going for work in the fields of the Reddy community. The victim Sudhakar being the field assistant of NREGS was helping out the dalits to get works. The dalits were also demanding more and equal wages from the Reddys.              

Brief details of the incident:

The people belonging ST (Lambadas) of Dusari Kunta Thanda, Machanapalli village, Shabad mandal of Ranga Reddy district were on their way for Vinayaka immersion on the evening of 20^nd September. As they entered the main road from their thanda around 7.30 pm, Gulla Kumar s/o Chinnayya of Namdhar Khan Pet has rashly    drove   the   auto   carrying   milk   and   hit   a   girl  in  the procession. The lambadas beat the driver Gulla Kumar. Gulla Kumar informed to his villagers over phone. Around 9 pm in the night Gulla Chinnayya and 100 others came and attacked children, women and men in the procession and as well as in the thanda simultaneously. They continued the attack until 11 pm. In the attack Sakri (35), Chinna Hanumanthu (55), Pedda Hanumanthu(41), Ramani(28), Ramiya(60), K. Shankaramma(45), V. Shankaramma(35), Manemma(58) were grievously hurt and 23 others have sustained diminutive injuries. They have also damaged the TV sets, motor bikes, utensils etc.

The villagers called on to the police. The police came to the village around 11.30 pm after the attack with ambulance and moved them to the hospital around 2am. The police send them away after treatment, but have not registered the case. They all came over to Chevella with the help of DSS on 21^st September and organized a public action (dharna) demanding for the registration of the case. Then only the Inspector got the case registered. 

Brief details of the incident

Chembu Nagamani(13) d/o Chalapathi Rao, Relli (SC) by caste is the resident of Venkatapathirajunagar, near Prema Hopital, Maharanipeta in Visakhapatnam. The victim Nagamani works  as a domestic servant in the house of Singampalli Venkatesh. She went to work as usual at about 4 p.m on 17^th September ’10. At that time Yerramsetti Prasanth, Appanna and Alibhai were also there. Nagamani went upstairs to bring utensils. Venkatesh and Prasanth dragged her inside, forcibly stripped off her clothes, pushed her on to the bed and Venkatesh raped her, he even threatened her by slapping on the face. Later Prasanth also forcibly raped her and threatened her not to disclose it to anyone. In the meantime as her mother was coming, they forcibly sent her away from the backside. Nagamani informed her parents and later lodged a complaint with II Town PS of Visakhapatnam on 17^th September itself. Though the victim has approached the PS on 17^th September itself, the complaint was registered only on 19^th September.  

Mr. Murugan belongs to Dalit community, is working as a Quality Control Inspector in the Civil Supplies Corporation, Thoothukudi district. Mr. Issac Iyyapillai was former Regional Manager in this corporation and Mr. Pichaiah is working as a Supervisor. In this industry around 15 people were working as contract laborers. There are around 300 cases have been registered regarding illegal smuggling of rice. On 16/08/2010, a complaint was registered against the Ex Regional Manager Mr. Issac and Mr. Pichaiah for smuggling civil supplies. But no action was taken on this compliant. On 17/08/2010, in the SIPCOT Police Station, while Supervisor Pichaiah was under interrogation, present Regional Manager came into the PS and asked Mr. Murugan to withdraw the complaint and told that the issue will be solved amicably through discussion. But no action was taken against the Regional Manager.

On 07/09/2010, Mr. Murugan was found dead inside the SIPCOT with injury marks all over his body. He was brutally assaulted and the perpetrators poured nearly ½ litre of Poison in to his mouth. Police filed the case as suicide, ignoring the injury marks over his body. No person can drink ½ litre of poison. Hence some social activists and relatives of the victim, staged protest seeking the arrest of the perpetrators and to investigate the case. The Victim’s family was not compensated adequately. The Police department is negligent to take action against the real culprits who were involved in the smuggling of civil supplies. Proper IPC sections regarding murder and PoA Act sections were not invoked regarding this atrocity. Direction for CBI investigation should be given to ensure fair investigation and justice to the victims family.