Tenkasi: Village head, 4 others ‘expelled’ for refusing snacks to Dalit kids

TENKASI: Dalit children in Panchankulam village in Tenkasi district are yet to get over their disappointment after the local tuck shop refused to serve them. A day after two men were arrested and three others booked in connection with caste discrimination in the village near Sankarankoil, the South Zone police initiated steps to temporarily bar all the five accused from entering the hamlet under the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

South Zone IG Asra Garg told TOI that the police had initiated the process with permission from the court as a preventive measure. “Such action can be taken in a SC/ST Act (Prevention of Atrocities) case, depending on the circumstance,” he said. On Saturday, owner of a petty shop and the ‘Nattamai‘ (village head) hailing from the Yadava community S Maheshwaran and his companion Ramachandran alias Moorthy were arrested for allegedly practicing “untouchability and promoting enmity between two groups”. Earlier, a video of a group of children belonging to the Scheduled Caste community being refused to be served snacks by the petty shop owner Maheshwaran, citing a decision taken by village elders at a meeting, had gone viral on social media, prompting police to register a FIR.

Inquiries revealed that the decision had been taken by a group of members of the Yadhava community, including Maheshwaran and Moorthy, following a clash with dalit community members in the year 2020. Police said there was an ongoing court case that had been registered, besides one under the SC/ST Act against some members of the intermediate caste while a counter case had been registered against SC members as well. “There had been no such instances of untouchability or caste discrimination in the village before,” said Untouchability Eradication Front Tenkasi District Secretary p Krishnamoorthy.

Courtesy : Bharattimes

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