A 36-year-old differently-abled dalit widow, was allegedly molested by a caste Hindu trio, who also abused her using her caste name, at Thoothukudi on Monday.
Sources said that Amutha, widow of Mariappan and a resident of T Saveriapuram here, was both deaf and dumb. After the death of her husband Mariappan seven years ago, she was living with her father, Sakthivel, who worked as a watchman.
On Monday evening, she, along with her 13-year old niece, Kanagavalli, took her goats for grazing to a field on the western side of the Komaspuram village.
While she was herding the goats, a caste Hindu trio closed her mouth with their hands and forcibly took her away. When she resisted their attempts, they abused the woman using her caste name, according to her niece.
Kanagavalli, who was alarmed by the brutality of the trio, rushed to Thalamuthunagar police station and informed about the ‘kidnap’ of her relative.
When police rushed to the spot, the trio fled the scene leaving the woman in the same place.
However, police managed to catch two of them. They were identified as Selvam (36), son of Munisamy, and Saravanamuthu(23), son of Shanmugavel, both from Davispuram in Thoothukudi. The third person, Lakshmana Kumar, son of Soundarapandi, took to his heels.
A case has been filed against the trio under various sections of the IPC and 3(1)(XI) of SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Subsequently, police arrested the two persons. On Tuesday morning, during a search police arrested the third person, Lakshmana Kumar.