VILLUPURAM: Two weeks after the caste clash, people of Sethusamudram village said they still could not come to terms with the trauma that rocked the village on Independence Day.
While the Dalits firmly state that a mob of their erstwhile Vanniyar friends entered the Dalit area after disconnecting the power supply, and hurled petrol bombs at their temple car and torched eight houses, the Vanniyars claim they were not involved in the attack.
They said the police officials, in the name of patrolling, knocked at doors of Vanniyar houses, especially at night, which scared the home-alone women.
During the riots, as many as nine policemen sustained injuries in the petrol bomb and stone-hurling attack by Vanniyars. Besides, Jaya, a woman from the Vanniyar community, said the day after the incident, police had said they had so far booked around 150 Vanniyars and remanded about 85. She said the police, without conducting any inquiry, had invaded the Vanniyar residences and arrested the men and women after trashing them. Claiming they were innocent, she demanded that the police release her community members.
On the other hand, Dalits said Vanniyars refused to let Dalit students enter the Government High School near Vanniyar residences. The Dalit students had to be enrolled at a government school at Nedumanur village, which was about 2 km from the village. Only one Dalit student Ealumalai (15), the son of a tank operator Kamaraj, was studying in the village government school as Kamaraj was the operator for an overhead tank located in the Vanniyar area. Ealumalai was threatened and attacked by some Vanniyars.