Nellai dalit youth tortured: Villagers

TIRUNELVELI: Around 300 Dalits of the Pallar community from Narasinganallur village in the district on Wednesday alleged that the police had tortured four Dalit youth after picking them for questioning in connection with a murder case. The Dalit residents, led by K Sriram, district secretary, DYFI, submitted a petition to District Collector S Natarajan, demanding action against the involved policemen. The residents alleged that the policemen attached to the Suthamali police station picked up S Muthu, A Manikandan, P Esakimuthu and P Vijayakumar on Monday in the name of questioning and tortured them.“They were not taken to the police station or court but were tortured by the policemen in a wooded area. They were released only on Wednesday,” Sriram said. He also charged that the Dalit youth were unable to walk after the brutal attack.Residents said Chellammal, a Dalit woman, was murdered by caste Hindus in April and since the police suspected that these Dalit youth might retaliate, they were picked up for inquiry.They claimed that all the Dalit youth taken for questioning were innocent and called the attack a case of police atrocity. When contacted, Ramesh Kanna, Sub-Inspector at the Suthamalli police station, dismissed the allegations. Recalling the chain of events, he said on April 10, Chellammal was murdered during a property dispute after an altercation broke out between her and a family of caste Hindus. “Three persons from the same family— father, mother and son—were arrested,” he said. He said all three persons would be released on bail shortly. Meanwhile, the police received information that a group of Dalit youth were planning to murder them to seek revenge. “Since it is a caste sensitive matter, we informed the higher ups and based on instructions, we picked them for questioning on Tuesday to warn them,” Kanna said. He claimed that P Esakimuthu, one of the Dalit youth, had admitted to the murder plan.