CHENNAI: A whole week has passed since a police team, believed to be from Tamil Nadu, picked up 11 men of the Kurava community from a village in Kerala, but the distraught family members are still clueless about their whereabouts.

After knocking doors of Tamil Nadu police in various districts, the families petitioned the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Tuesday. The families say that the 11 men were forcibly herded by a team, which they believe as Maduravoyal police from Chennai, on June 21.

A Dalit community, Kuravas are denotified tribes but still carry the stigma of ‘criminal tribes’ though the Criminal Tribes Act was abolished long ago.

These ‘missing’ men, along with several others, left their native village, Kuthirai Santhai near Chinnasalem, in search of better livelihood along with their kith and kin 10 years ago. They settled down at Manikonda Kolavayal village in Kasargod district and eked out their living by cleaning toilets and pruning trees in the locality.

Speaking to Express, the women said a group of men dressed in Tamil Nadu police uniform landed at their settlement and forcibly took the 11 men in the middle of their sleep around 1 am. They were pushed away while attempting to stop the jeep in which the men were taken. “Police said the arrest was made in a theft case but refused to divulge where they were taking them,” said S Kannagi, wife of Subramanian, one of the 11 arrested.

“It has been almost eight days, we don’t even know if they are alive or not. The local police had no clue and our search at police stations in Villupuram turned futile,” she said.

Meanwhile, one of their relatives informed that the missing men were locked up at the Maduravoyal station. So they travelled all the way to Chennai with the hope of finding them. But access was denied forcing them to approach the NCSC as a last resort. According to I Pandiyan of Social Awareness Society For Youths (SASY), a Villupuram-based Dalit NGO, which has been helping these women, the police used to pick up innocent people belonging to Kurava community for any theft case reported elsewhere. This continues to keep them under a sense of fear, he added.

Meanwhile, the Maduravoyal police rejected the allegations and an official from the station denied making any such arrest.