DINDIGUL: Four people have been booked under the SC/ST (PoA) Act after a Scheduled Caste youth was stabbed to death in Kodaikanal on Thursday night.
The deceased has been identified as V Ramar (28), a daily wager from Poombarai panchayat in Kodaikanal, working in farmland around the hills.
The police said on July 30, a group from a dominant community led by J Ragavendran alias Raghu came to Ramar’s house and told him that his horse was roaming on the road. Ramar along with his friend Prasanth reached the spot to take the horse back.
At the time, an argument broke out between Raghu and Ramar, and the former abused Ramar, hurled casteist slurs at him and attacked him and Prasanth with a knife.
In this, Ramar died on the spot while Prasanth sustained severe injuries. The body was shifted to the Government Dindigul Medical College Hospital on Friday morning for post-mortem, while Prasanth was taken to the Theni government hospital.
K Chellamma, a relative of Ramar, said, “Last year, when Ramar’s horse entered the farmland owned by Raghu, it ended up in a fight. Though the issue was resolved, the duo often had disputes.”
She denied the police version that the murder is the fallout of a quarrel that cropped up over grazing horses.
Meanwhile, Ramar’s relatives refused to receive his body from the Dindigul government hospital claiming that more persons are involved in the murder. A police officer told TNIE, “Three more persons are being interrogated.”