When a mob of 300 caste Hindus attacked SC settlement, why only 12 were held, asks NGO

The Hindu

07-05-2025

'When a mob of more than 300 Most Backward Community people rampaged through the Scheduled Caste people's settlement to destroy their properties, why only 12 of them were arrested?,' asked Kathir, founder of Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO.
Condemning the attack on the SC community at Vadakadu in Pudukkottai district earlier this week, Mr. Kathir, at a press meet here on Wednesday, said the attack allegedly started over the ownership of Adaikkalam Katha Ayyanar Temple on a poramboke land.
'Though court has ruled in favour of the SC people, the other side claims ownership of the temple,' he said, adding the issue ended in denial of access to the SC people in the rituals of Muthumariamman Temple administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.
When they were questioned about the injustice, the caste Hindu people from different villages joined hands to attack the SC people, Mr. Kathir alleged.
During the fact-finding visit, Evidence team learned that SC community women were subjected to verbal abuse and casteist slurs by the perpetrators. 'The District Collector and Superintendent of Police should have inspected the location and spoken to the victims, but they refrained from doing so,' he said.
Though Minister of Law S. Regupathy, accompanied by SP Abhishek Gupta, visited the affected houses, the SP should have restored the villagers' faith in the police, he stated.
Condemning the police's hurried statement that it was alcohol-induced violence, Mr. Kathir wondered how they could divert people's attention with such a misleading statement.
'By denying the caste angle to the attack what are the police trying to prove?. When the repeated caste-motivated violence in the State has exposed how deep the practice remains in the people's mind, why do they want to hide it?,' he questioned.
When women were harassed and a portrait of Ambedkar was defaced, the police in their FIR should also include sections 3(1)(wi) (intentionally touches a woman belonging to an SC or an ST, knowing that she belongs to an SC or an ST, when such act of touching is of a sexual nature and is without the recipient's consent); 3(1)(wii) (uses words, acts or gestures of a sexual nature towards a woman belonging to an SC or an ST, knowing that she belongs to an SC or an ST); 3(1)(t) (destroys, damages or defiles any object generally known to be held sacred or in high esteem by members of the ST or the ST); and 3(2)(va) (commits any offence specified in the Schedule, against a person or property, knowing that such person is a member of an SC or an ST or such property belongs to such member, shall be punishable with such punishment as specified under the IPC (45 of 1860) for such offences and shall also be liable to fine) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Also, as per the Act, the perpetrators should each be fined ₹5 lakh, he stressed.