Articles

(A condensed translation, by Trevor Jeyaraj, of Mr. Venpura Saravanan's Facebook post in Tamil )

N (16), daughter of Rajendran R of Sendurai taluk in Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu, who finished her class VIII and discontinued studies due to her situation at home was working at a garment store in Sendurai. Manikandan, the son of Ramasaami, a resident of Keelamalikai north street and an Indu Munnani (Hindu Munnani) member was working as a mason in the Sendurai area. N and Manikandan met each other and they were in a relationship, meanwhile, N became pregnant. Therefore, N forced Manikandan to marry her.

Picture from the Hindu Munnani website

Manikandan, who did not wish to marry her, on December 29 2016, through the advice of Rajasekaran, the Indu Munnani Secretary of Ponparappi abducted N and locked her in an unknown location. Here, along with Manikandan, Keelamaaligai Thirumuragan (S/o Arivalagan), Vetriselvan of Ayandhathanoor (S/o Seenivaasan), Manivannan (S/o Selvaraj) - these four men gangraped N for four days. Then they disrobed her and tried to drag the foetus from her womb and finally put a stone around her body and threw her into a well.

Sendurai police ask the victim's relatives to change the complaint

Subsequently, Rajendran R provided a complaint to the Sendurai police station on December 30th that Manikandan of Keelamaalikai has abducted his daughter. The Sub-inspector Rajendran who received the complaint informed that they will not take the complaint if it stated that Manikandan abducted N. Only if it is changed and stated that N is missing, they will take the complaint and search for their daughter. The police got it rewritten and sentN's father back. N's relatives also visited the station daily and asked if she was found and the police responded that they were still searching for her. On January 14th, on an information that a foul smell was coming out of a well, the fire and rescue service personnel went and looked into the same. A teenage girl's body was rescued in a naked state. The fire and rescue service personnel rushed the body for a postmortem at the Ariyaloor government hospital and N's mother identified it as N's body.

Agitation and demands of the relatives and protestors

R.Manivel, Duraisaamy, Kandasaami of Marxist Communist party, Padmavathi of the district women's body, Bahujan Samajvadi Party's (BSP) Chinadurai, Selvanambi and Anbanandam of Viduthalai Chiruthaihal Katchi (VCK) Panchayat leader and social activists went on an agitation before the government hospital. As the situation was tense, the post-mortem was conducted on Sunday itself. But protests continued on Sunday appealing that the accused must be arrested and the protestors refused to receive the body without the arrest. Thereafter Ariyaloor DSP and Sendurai Tahsildar arrived at the site for talks.

Subsequently, an FIR was filed against Manikandan, Manivanan, Thirumurugan and Vetriselvan, who raped and murdered N, and they were arrested. But protests continued on Tuesday in front of the Ariyaloor government hospital pressing for the arrest of Rajasekar, the district secretary of Indu Munnani, the mastermind behind this murder who was not yet arrested. Therefore, Ariyaloor DSP among other government officials, arrived and talked with the protestors.

The protestors appealed that the district secretary of Indu Munnani, the mastermind behind this murder, must be immediately arrested. The government must provide a compensation of Rs.10 lakh to N's family, a member of the family must be given a government job. According to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, an amount of Rs. 8.25 lakh must be provided as immediate relief. The Government officials informed that cases were filed under IPC sections 120B, 324, 302 and according to the postmortem and DNA analysis of the 5 week foetus in N's womb, action will be taken against the accused. The protest was subsequently withdrawn, but it was decided that a massive protest will be scheduled for January 23 to press the government to act swiftly.

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Notes

* Source: Facebook post of Venpura Saravanan in Tamil: https://www.facebook.com/venpurasaravanan/posts/1098885350222567

* According to the Hindu Munnani website, Indu Munnani was started in 1980 to stop the propagation of Atheism, to stop religious conversion and to create awareness of the pride of Hinduism among Hindus. Due to the hard work of Indu Munnani, the propagation of Atheism has been successfully thwarted and religious conversion is being stopped.

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