Case primary details

Fact finding date

Case Incident details

Case summary

Jagisthan (22) s/o Shankar, resident of Aasur village, Tindivanam taluk, Villupuram district, belonging to Dalit Paraiyar community fell in love with one Subbulakshmi (20), d/o Muthu, resident of Aasur, belonging to Caste Hindu Yadhav community. Fearing that their parents would object their love and marriage, they registered their marriage and were living with their respective parents. As Subbulakshmi’s parents were arranging a marriage for her, the couple eloped to Chennai and sought protection for the Police Department. Police department convened a peace meeting calling the parents of Jagisthan and Subbulakshmi. Parents of the couple accepted their marriage and have not raised any serious objection to their marriage. But the Caste Hindu Vanniyars who could not tolerate the marriage between a Dalit boy and a caste Hindu girl, organized a mob of 100 Vanniyars and orchestrated mass atrocity in Dalit residential area of the Aasur village. Dalits their Houses and properties were ransacked. 3 Dalits who were severely injured were taken to the Tindivanam Government Hospital. On knowing this mass atrocity, Social Awareness Society for Youths initiated a fact finding mission in this village and collected the data regarding the atrocity and come up with the findings and recommendations as given below. 

Findings:

•         Aasur village is home to nearly 250 Dalit families, but the caste Hindus like Vanniyars, Yadhavs, Udayars and Nayakkars are found to be in majority and nearly 750 caste Hindu families are living in this village.
•         Dalit youth Jagisthan (22) s/o Shankar and Yadhav girl Subbulakshmi (20) d/o Muthu were in love for the last 2½ years. Fearing that their parents might object them if they came to know about their love affair, the couple on 16/04/2014 registered their marriage in Chennai and was living in their respective parent’s house. On 11/07/2014, Subbulakshmi parents planned to have engagement. On 10/07/2014, Subbulakshmi called Jagisthan and informed about the marriage development. Hence on 10/07/2014, Jagisthan and Subbulakshmi eloped to Chennai.
•         On knowing the elopement of Subbulakshmi with Jagisthan, Subbulakshmi’s parents filed a case of Kidnap against Jagisthan in the Vellimedupet police station. As the couple came to know about the kidnap case filed against Jagisthan, on 12/07/2014 10 am, they met the Villupuram Superintendent of Police Mr. Manoharan at his office. There Subbulakshmi told that no one kidnapped her. She told that as their parents raised objections to their love affair, they registered their marriage in Chennai on 16/04/2014 and the couple produced all the relevant documents. They also filed a petition seeking police protection.
•         5 Dalit youths namely 1. Muthu s/o Durai, 2. Rasamuthu s/o Durai, 3. Kovilmani s/o Loganathan, 4. Sathish s/o Kumar, 5. Vinoth s/o Veeramani, are said to have supported the couple regarding their love and marriage. Hence on 13/07/2014 7.30 pm, Caste Hindu Vanniyars namely Ayyadurai s/o Vedivel, Kaandiban s/o Ganasundaram, Kamalakannan s/o Balakrishnan, Pungavanam s/o Namdev attacked Muthu’s father Durai. Panchayat President Mr. Elumalai s/o Muthaal, who came to the rescue of Durai was also attacked by the caste Hindu Vanniyar perpetrators.
•         Panchayat President Elumalai informed about the assault to the Vellimedupet Police station officials. Hence the police station deployed 6 police personnel at the Aasur village for security purpose.
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•         SP Mr. Manoharan after an enquiry gave an order to the Vellimedupet Police station, to convene a peace meeting bringing parents of the couple. Hence a peace meeting was convened at the Vellimedupet Police station. The parents of Jagisthan and Subbulaksmi, finally compromised themselves and after knowing the wishes of Subbulakshmi, her parents accepted her decision and left the station peacefully.
•         On 14/07/2014 7 pm, a mob of 60 Vanniyars carrying deadly weapons like wooden logs, Iron rods, stones and soda bottles stormed into the Dalit residential area of Aasur village and brutally attacked the Dalits. Vanniyar perpetrator namely Pungavanam s/o Namdev, shut down the power connection to the Dalit area, to prevent any retaliations from the Dalits. The mob verbally abused Dalits referring derogatory regarding caste saying, “do you our caste girls? now we are coming to your houses, paraiyas! son of prostitutes”. They destroyed the dalit houses and their utensils and other belongings. Dalits were brutally assaulted by the mob of Vanniyars.
•         Houses of Dalits namely 1. Muthulakshmi w/o Govindaraj, 2. Vijaya w/o Kovilmani, 3. Muthulakshmi w/o Ganesan, 4. Pattu w/o Arumugam, 5. Thandavarayan s/o Chellamuthu, 6. Devaraj s/o Saratha, 7. Manibalan s/o Kuppan, 8. Velmurugan s/o Mariammal, 9. Natarajan s/o Natesan, 10. Murugan s/o Neelavathi, 11. Arumugam s/o Maari and houses of 15 other Dalits were ransacked by the mob. The roof tops, wooden doors, windows, utensils were destroyed by the caste Hindu Vanniyar mob.
•         Dalit school student Nirosha d/o Thandavarayan suffered severe eye injury as the window glass pieces hit her eyes when the perpetrators were destroying the glass windows. She was profusely bleeding due the injury. Old Dalit woman Pattamma w/o Arumugam, suffered severe leg injury as the perpetrators threw stones to destroy the roof tops. The Ambulance service 108 was called to ensure immediate medical assistance to the severely injured Dalit girl Nirosha and old woman namely Mrs. Pattamma. But the Ambulance driver and the staffs failed to arrive and it was intercepted by the perpetrators. The RTO visited the place and arranged for an ambulance to send the injured to the hospital.
•         Based on the false counter complaint lodged by one Suresh belongs to Vanniyar community at Vellimedupet Police Station, police have filed false counter case against 11 Dalit youths with Cr. No. 102/14 u/s 147, 148, 341, 294(b), 506(ii), 307 of IPC.
•         On the same day (14/07/2014) around 11 pm Former Panchayat President Mr. Ramachandran lodged a complaint in the Vellimedupet Police station. Based on the complaint police have registered an FIR against 24 caste Hindu Vanniyar Perpetrators under Cr. No. 103/14 u/s 147, 294(b), 427 of IPC r/w 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) of SC/ST PoA Amendment Ordinance, 2014.

Recommendations:

•         Parents of the Inter-caste marriage couple compromised and accepted their marriage, on knowing the couple’s firm decision to live together. But the Cadres of PMK Party and Vanniyar Sangam, who aggressively instigating caste animosity and orchestrating atrocities against dalits since Dharmapuri Elavarasan-Divya Atrocity incident, trying to fan anti-Dalit sentiment using this Jagisthan-Subbulakshmi love and registered marriage episode. As this marriage was against the will of the village dictum, the Vanniyars have orcehestrated this mass atrocity against Dalits. The Vanniyar mob of Aasur village tried to kidnap the couple when they went to Chennai to appear for the semester examinations. Hence the Government needs to provide adequate security and protection for this Inter-caste marriage couple.    
•         All the false counter cases filed against the innocent Dalits and Victims of this atrocity should be closed and all the Dalit victims regarding this atrocity need to be released.
•         The police have filed false counter case against Dalits. Hence the Police officials who filed false cases against Dalits should be implicated and need to awarded punishments under the SC/ST PoA Amendment Ordinance, 2014.
•         Appropriate sections of the SC/ST PoA Amendment Ordinance, 2014, should be invoked in the FIR No. 103/14 regarding this atrocity.
•         District Collector and the Superintendent of Police have not visited the place of atrocity. Hence as per the provisions the SC/ST PoA Rules 1995, The District Collector and the Superintendent of Police shall visit the place of occurrence and assess the extent of atrocity, loss and damage of property and provide immediate relief and rehabilitation to the victims of atrocities.
•         All the 70 school going  Dalit students of Aasur village are not able to go to school due to the fear of intimidation and attack by the caste Hindu Vanniyars of Aasur Village. When some Dalit tried to go to school, they were intercepted by the Vanniyar perpetrators, who verbally abused them referring derogatory regarding caste name, saying, “you son of Paraiya prostitutes why you are coming by this way”. And the mobs chased away the Dalit children by hurling stones and bottles at them. Hence the Dalit children who underwent such trauma and fear of attack in the future need to pacified and enable them to arrive at normalcy by providing psychological Counseling treatment.
•         The 108 Ambulance Service staffs who failed to arrive should be implicated and need to awarded punishments under the SC/ST PoA Amendment Ordinance, 2014.
•         The Vanniyars orchestrated such mass atrocity against Dalits. Hence COLLECTIVE FINE should be imposed on the Vanniyars of the Aasur Village as per the Provisions of the PoA Act, 1989.
•         Since the Elavarasan and Divya love tragedy, many Inter-caste marriage couples are living in constant fear and without any protection from the Law and Order Administration. Hence in order to uphold the Social Justice, the Tamil Nadu government need to introduce Policies, enact laws and provide protection to the people who engage in Inter-caste marriages and the state need to promote Inter-Caste marriages.