Kollimalai

MADURAI: After a gap of a few years, Tamil Nadu has reported yet another incident of a dalit being forcefed human excreta and urinated upon. The atrocity was allegedly perpetrated on Kollimallai, 45, of Thiruvanduthurai village near Mannargudi in Thiruvarur district on April 28. He has now complained to the DGP, chief secretary and top district officials that police had not booked the accused trio under the stringent sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The victim told reporters at the office of the NGO Evidence here on Tuesday that the incident was the culmination of a three-year enmity between him and some non-dalits. He said that he owned a brick kiln and was going home on his two-wheeler around 2.30 am on the day when Muthu alias Sakthivel, 42, from a non-dalit community threw a log at him. As he lost his balance and fell, Muthu attacked him and called two others including his nephew Rajesh, 28, and Rajkumar, 27, to the spot. Kollimalai said the trio attacked him brutally and Rajesh and Rajkumar pinned him to the ground. Thereafter, Sakhivel collected human faeces at the tip of a long stick, forced his mouth open and pushed it in.

That was not all. They tied Kollimalai’s hands behind his back, pushed him down and urinated on his body. ``I felt so humiliated that I wanted to commit suicide on the spot,’’ he said. The three men escaped on hearing Pakkirisamy, 55, of Mahadevan colony approaching. Pakkirisamy alerted the villagers and Kollimalai’s relatives took him to the Kottur police station, his body riddled with injuries and reeking of urine. However, things were hardly welcome at the station as they had to stage a demonstration to get the police to file an FIR. Though the FIR stated that Kollimalai was forcefully fed faeces, his attackers were not booked for the crime under under 3(1)(a) of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, of 2015 as is usually done.

Instead, cases were registered under sections 341, 294 (b), 352, 506(2) of IPC, and sec 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) of the SC/ST act. Meanwhile, local people caught the three accused and handed them over to the police, but only Sakthivel was arrested and remanded. Kollimalai said that the police allowed other two to escape. Besides, the accused were booked only for abusing him in the name of caste. The victim was admitted to the Tiruvarur Government Hospital from April 28 to May 5.

Kollimalai said that trouble started about three years ago when some dalit youths and their family members were attacked by Sakthivel and Rajesh for participating in the Ayyanar temple festival at Thiruvanduthurai. Their vehicles were also damaged. Subsequently, Kollimalai confronted them and demanded to know why they were attacking the youths. When the situation was heading towards a clash, Kollimalai said that the matter was settled through discussions at the police station. However, Rajesh was let off without filing a case against him.

Besides the state officials, the victim has also written to the district collector and superintendent of police, Tiruvarur, demanding that the three men be booked for the heinous crime under section 3(1)(a) of the Prevention of Atrocities Act and under the Goondas act. He has also demanded that the other two accused should not be given advance bail till the charge sheet was filed in this case. ``I also want to ensure that I am the last victim from my community to suffer this atrocity,’’ he said.

A Kathir, executive director of the NGO, who also attended the press conference, recalled similar incidents that happened a few years ago. Ramasamy and Murugesan were force-fed human excreta at Thinniyam village while Sangan, another dalit, was made to drink urine. Human faeces was poured on the body of Muthumari in Melaurappanur a few years ago. ``It is shocking to see this continuing,’’ he said. A compensation of Rs 5 lakh should be given to the family of Kollimalai immediately, he said.

