Local people allege police harassment

Traffic on the busy Palakkad-Pollachi road was disrupted for several hours on Tuesday evening after local people at Pallatheri, near here, staged a protest accusing the police of mentally harassing a 27-year-old Dalit youth, resulting in his suicide.

The youth, identified as S. Santhosh of Koottupatha, near Pallatheri, hanged himself from the ceiling of his house on Tuesday afternoon. He was brought dead to the Government District Hospital. The body is kept at the mortuary for post-mortem examination.

Local people alleged that Santhosh ended his life within hours of a police team from the Kasaba station in Palakkad reached his house seeking his production before the station house officer. Santhosh was not at home then. The assistant sub-inspector who headed the team reportedly threatened the family and used abusive language.

He told the family that Santhosh was part of a four-member Dalit group that threw stones at a KSRTC bus at Elappully on Monday in connection with a hartal against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act.

The ASI allegedly told the family that Santhosh will have to pay a huge fine to avoid jail term. He also allegedly threatened to forcibly arrest Santhosh if he failed to report at the station, it was claimed. Santhosh, who reached home in the afternoon, was informed about the police visit by his family members and soon he committed suicide.

The protesters demanded that the ASI be suspended and criminal proceedings initiated against him.

The police said three others who threw stones at the bus had surrendered and denied the charges levelled against the ASI. Additional forces have been deployed in the area in view of the tense situation.