Family refuses to take dalit man’s body, seeks fair probe

MADURAI: Two days after a dalit man was murdered by two non-dalits in Achampathu village, his family and villagers refused to collect the body demanding CB-CID probe. They alleged that the Nagamalai Pudukottai police are giving a false narrative of previous enmity to close the case which would backfire into a serious caste violence. They sat on protest at their community hall seeking CB-CID probe and action against the police for not investigating the case properly.

Two men, S Gopi from pillaimar community and R Muthu from kallar community, murdered P Pandeeswaran alias Selvam, a devendrakula vellalar (dalit), from Achampathu on Wednesday night. Police said that 12 days ago, Gopi asked for money from Pandeeswaran for booze but the latter refused, which resulted in a scuffle. Over this previous enmity, they hit him with a stone and pushed him into a drainage ditch after abusing him verbally with caste slurs. Gopi and Muthu have been arrested on murder charges as well as under Prevention of Atrocities (Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes) Act.

“Pandeeswaran was not someone strong enough to pick up this kind of enmity. The accused are youngsters while the victim was 37 years old. Gopi and Muthu had come to this area with some other malicious intention,” says his relative T Nagarajan.

In the evening, senior police officials and revenue officials held a peace meeting with the villagers. They demanded 25 lakh compensation to Pandeeswaran’s family and the arrest of other accused involved in the murder.

Courtesy : TOI

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