MADURAI: The district Child Welfare Committee (CWC), in its report on a harassment case filed under the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against five Dalit children of Ulaipatti, stated that the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police seemed to be fabricated.
On August 5, the five Dalit children, including a girl, all aged between six and nine years and studying at Ulaipatti Panchayat Union Primary School, allegedly harassed a few caste Hindu students, including two girls, of a nearby government-aided school. Based on a complaint given by S Velusamy, father of a victim, M Kallupatti police, under Usilampatti sub-division, booked the five Dalit students under various sections, including the POCSO Act.
According to the FIR, when the caste-Hindu children tried to cross the Ulaipatti school, the accused not only attacked the victims with stones and abused them, but also hurled cow dung mixture at them.
Meanwhile, after facing the music from several quarters for booking the children under the POCSO Act, the district administration ordered the CWC to conduct an inquiry into the issue. A four-member panel was constituted for the probe and the team submitted its report to the Collector recently. The report stated that “a part of the FIR seemed to be fabricated and it looked like the result of someone’s fertile imagination. There was pressure from a caste-based outfit on the police for registering the case against the Dalit children”.
It has to be noted that after inspecting both the schools were the students were studying, Collector N Veera Raghava Rao had earlier said that he “did not see any discrimination among the children. It seemed that their parents showed bias.”