In yet another incident of discrimination of dalits in Madurai district, a group of caste Hindus forced a boy belonging to a SC community to carry a pair of footwear on his head and walk through their street in Usilampatti.
According to a complaint lodged by P Nagammal, mother of the boy, to police P Arun Kumar (11), a class VI student of a Government Higher Secondary School, was returning home after checking his annual exam result on Monday. While he was crossing a village temple, Nilamaalai (30), son of the temple priest, intercepted and verbally abused him for walking through the caste Hindu street wearing footwear. But the discrimination for the boy did not end here as Nilamaalai forced Arun Kumar to carry the footwear on his head and walk through the same street. Even after the boy crossed the stretch, Nilamaalai instructed him to carry the footwear in his hand till he reached home, she said in her complaint.
Upset over the harassment meted out to him, Arun Kumar refused to take food for the next two days and was remaining silent. This raised suspicion in Nagammal and upon repeated enquiries Arun Kumar narrated the entire incident to her.
A shocked Nagammal filed a complaint with the Usilampatti police on Wednesday who registered cases against Nilamaalai under sections 294 b (Scolding filthy language), 506 (1) (threatening) of IPC and 3 (1) (X) Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Meanwhile, Niamaalai has gone underground and the police have reportedly formed a special team to trace him.
Commenting on the issue, Superintendent of Police V Balakrishnan said, “We have deployed a team in the village and also made Dalits to walk with slippers on their feet through Caste Hindu streets.” However, the relative of the boy and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi rural district deputy secretary C Thennarasu told Express Nagammal and her son Arun Kumar have left the village and were staying in a relative’s house in another place as members of Caste Hindus were threatening them to withdraw the complaint.
Nagammal, the sole breadwinner of the family, was unable to go for work fearing attack by caste Hindus for the last few days, he said.
Within the last ten days, two clashes between caste Hindus and Dalits were reported from two villages in the district and the National Commission for Scheduled Caste had also sought a report from the district police on the clash reported in Muthuramalingampatti.