Nayakkannatham Village is in Annavalli Panchayat, Cuddalore district, home to nearly 93 families of Dalit community. Valisothanaipalayam village which is in Annavalli Panchayat, is home to 1250 dominant caste hindu Vanniyar community families. In the Annavalli Panchayat there are around 8 villages and Vanniyars who were in majority, practice untouchability and orchestrates atrocity against dailts quite often. On 18/03/2010, Murugan, Vijaykanth and Radhakrishnan, belongs to dalit community were riding a newly bought motorcycle with the photo of Thirumavalavan (Dalit Political Party leader)pasted on it, on the way their bike’s mirror collided with the bike mirror of one Narayanasamy belongs to Vanniyar community, resident of Valisothanaipalayam. This leads to minor scuffle between them, and Narayanasamy verbally abused them and slapped Murugan. Insequence to this incident, again Narayanasamy and his relatives, went to Nayakkannatham and assaulted Murugan, Vijaykanth and Radhakrishnan. Hence Murugan reported this atrocity to the Mudunagar Police station. On 21/03/2010, around 01 pm peace meeting was convened and the problem was settled in the police station.

On 21/03/2010, around 7 pm, mob of 200 Vanniyars under Narayanasamy entered the Nayakkanatham village and brutally assaulted the Dalits with deadly weapons. 8 Dalits houses were tortured and their properties were destroyed by the mob. S. Sakthivel, R. Chakaravarthi, K. Gingeevel, P. Palanisamy, J. Jeyaraj, M. Indra, Anjammal w/o Chakravarthy, Alahammal w/o Kuppusamy, and S. Sangeetha w/o Sakthivel, sustained severe injury due to this brutal assault by the deadly weapons. The mob looted the valuables of the dalits and ransacked their belongings. Police have arrested 39 pepertators of this atrocity. The perpetrators file a false counter complaint the Dalits, alleging them for a commission of mass atrocity.

Rita (19 years) w/o Sonu has been living with her parents in Anand Nagar. On the day of incident, i.e. on 20.3.2010, Rita with her sister in law Gauri (husband’s elder brother’s wife) was going to her husband’s aunt’s (bua) home. When they reached Sarvodaya Nagar Railway crossing, Ishwar Singh who was an acquaintance of Gauri met them there. He offered soft drink to Rita; she denied but as he forced, she drank it. Soon after, she complained of drowsiness. Gauri asked her to go to the dispensary with Ishwar Singh on his motorbike. Thus Rita went with him. Instead of taking Rita to dispensary, he took her to his friend Durga Lal’s home near Marwar Junction. He confined her there and at night brutally raped her and threatened her to be quiet otherwise she would be killed.

Next day on 21.3.2010 Ishwar Singh, Durga Lal and one more person hired a Maruti Van and took her to Ahmedabad. From there they took her in another van and reached Puna on 22.3.2010 and did not even give her food to eat. In Puna they took her to a shop owned by person named Raju Kumawat. They all drank tea and compelled Rita also to drink tea. They stayed at Raju Kumawat’s home in Puna. Ishwar Singh stayed with Rita in one room. That night also Ishwar Singh raped Rita. On 23.3.2010 Rita got an opportunity to call her father from Ishwar Singh’s mobile phone. She asked her father to come to Puna to rescue her from those culprits. On 26.3.2010 her father and brother in law reached Puna. Ishwar Singh ran away from there. They brought her back to Pali and registered a complaint against the culprits on 28.3.2010. Police sent her for medical examination and started investigation in the case. Rita’s statement was recorded under section 164 Cr.P.C. He was arrested thereafter on 23.6.2010 and submitted the charge sheet against the accused on 17.9.2010.

Police in this case did not play an efficient role. Although they registered the case but did not intervene up to the mark. Victim’s statement was recorded under section 164 Cr.P.C. They even tried to influence and compel the victim and her family to resolve the matter outside the court and thus withdraw the case, which is very shameful on the part of them. With the intervention and pressure from Centre for Dalit Rights, police arrested the culprit Ishwar Singh on 23.6.2010. During investigation police did not find accused Gauri and Raju Kumawat guilty.

Administration provided the victim a statutory monetary relief of Rs. 50,000/- for which she was eligible and entitled under rule 12(4) of SC/ST Act, 1989. Due to this incident, victim’s mental condition is very pitiable but administration did nothing in this regard and did not provide any counseling to her which would have helped her in leading her life smoothly ahead. Rita was sent for medical examination on the same day of filing FIR. The medical officer did not give any opinion regarding the occurrence of rape and counted on FSL report. The charge sheets against two accused were presented before the court. Now the case is pending before the court of law for trial.

Culprit’s family is continuously pressurizing the victim and family to compromise and withdraw the case. They are even threatening them. Due to this incident, Rita’s mental condition is not stable. She is so much terrorized that she has confined herself in home and does not talk to anybody. She thinks that her marital life has spoiled. The charge sheets against the culprits were presented before the court of law. Now the case is pending for trial.

M. Balaramakrishnan, belongs to Dalit Arunthathiyar community, is a resident of Yadavs street, Kaluhumalai, Kovilpatti Taluk, Thoothukudi district. He fell in love with Latha belongs to caste hindu Mudaliar community. Even overcoming many threat and obstacles they got married and started living in a rented house at Yadav street. Some youths of this streets used to humiliate him saying, just because you married a higher caste woman,  you could not become one among us. They verbally abuses him, referring derogatory regarding caste name.

On 20/03/2010, around 11 pm Kannan, Venkatesh, and Kani all belongs to Konar community residing in the street, after consuming alchohal, in an aerated condition, came to Balaramakrishnan house and started abusing him. They asked him to open the door and let them in. They verbally abused him and threatened to kill him if he continue to live in their street. As the people gathered hearing the noice, all the three culprits escaped the scene. Next day Balaramakrishnan filed a complaint with the police station with the help of a lawyer, against the perpetrators. Police is yet to arrest the culprits, who absconded fearing police arrest.

Kumar, resident of Adukku paarai MGR Nagar, Periyasemur, Erode District, belongs to Dalit Arunthathiyar community. He is working as a Scavenger in the Periyasemur Panchayat Office. His wife Ms. Revathy is the Councilor for 16^th ward of Periyasemur Panchayat. Executive Officer of the Panchayat office Mr. Thannasi, asked Kumar to watchover the office considering frequent thefts in the recent past. Hence on 16/03/2010, while Kumar was looking after the panchayat office, one boy came inside the building climbing over the compound wall. Noticing the boy, Kumar questioned him asking why he came inside the building? The boy told that they were playing cricket and the ball fell inside. Kumar asked how can you get inside the building without getting permission and that too climbing over the compound wall. On hearing this conversation, Murugasen, belongs to dominant caste hindu Kounder community, intervened and asked Kumar, “how dare you a sakkili mother fucker mistake our community boy for a thief. Then he verbally abused him and slapped him. Fearing further onslaught by Murugasen, Ravi and Devarajan, Kumar shouted for help. Hence all the three perpetrators ran away from the scene.

Kumar reported about this assault to his collegues, and gave a complaint to his EO. But Thannasi told that the problem can be solved amicably. Kumar and his collegues around 30 Scavengers filed a complaint with the Veerapan Chatiram Police Station. During the evening, Periyasemur Influential caste hindu people, Panchayat president Subbramani, House keepers Association Secretary Shanmugam and others persuaded Kumar to withdraw the complaint. Kumar considering the dependency of their community people over the dominant caste Hindus in their area and fearing the negative effect on his career, withdrew the complaint.

Brief details of the Incident:

In Valasabakala (P Agraharam) there are 100 houses of dalits and 300 houses of BC community and in terms of population there are 500 dalits and 1000 BCs.  Government has sanctioned 410 acres of land to BC community and only 6 acres to dalits. The BCs community dominates and discriminates to Dalits as they have to depend for everything on them. They give loans and collect huge interests from dalits. In the elections SC Malas voted for Congress and Madiga’s voted to Telugu Dasam, Hence the BCs assaulted SC Madiga’s. It has gone to a stage that the dalits should oblige to what all the BCs say or else be prepared for dire consequences. In case of the burial ground of dalits, it has been encroached by the BCs. Since there is no space, the dalits are being forced to bury on the road side and it has gone to an extent of burying on the same bodies. After continuous protest by Dalits, the M.R.O got the burial ground measured, fixed the boundaries and handed it over to dalits. This irritated the BCs and on the very next day they removed the boundaries. On 11.03.2010 MRO, Thondangi, MPP, Tuni, MLA Raju and Ashok Babu asked the BCs not to dig the assigned lands of dalits, but was even ignored by the Sarpanch.  NREGA works were taken up in the burial ground by the BCs. The 6 acres were distributed among 6 families.  Finally mustering courage the dalits approached MDO and in turn the M.D.O ordered to stop the work, even MPP and MLA have also asked to stop the work, but in vain. Once again the dalits approached the Panchyat President to stop the work, but he abused them in the name of caste and said “Mala Lanja Kodukuluki, thakuva jathi valaki bhume endukura” and his henchman assaulted a dalit lady Nakka Simhachalam, tore her blouse and hit Bobarada Naga mani with the rod, and abused them saying “this land belongs to us not for you dalit bitches.