SALEM: Even ten days after a 13-year-old Dalit girl was beheaded by a driver, blood stains are quite visible on the road that leads to the victim's house. Situated 12 km from Attur town on the foothills is Thalavaipatti. A long deserted road that leads to the village has not many houses. When Express visited the victim's parents on Friday -- a small house built of hollow bricks with thatched roofs on either side sheltering goats and dog - -grief was palpable.
Seated right below his daughter's photo in front of his house, the 50-year-old father said, "The incident happened when my 22-year-old son - an autorickshaw driver - and I went to Narasingapuram for work. It was around 8.30 pm that a call from my relative alerted me. Being the youngest at the house, she was the most loved one," he said, wiping a drop of tear that trickled down his cheek. The father explained how his affectionate daughter never went to bed without her parents.
Speaking about Dinesh's family, he said, "We have been living here like brothers and sisters for generations. There was no enmity between the two families. We regularly fetch water from the well at their house across the main road. Although we are very angry at Dinesh, a revenge would not put an end to this issue. So, we urge the State government to award capital punishment to Dinesh as it would be a lesson for others as well. It would create fear in people who even have thoughts of misbehaving with girls."
He also requested the State to provide government job on of their family members. While his elder daughter has completed diploma in nursing, his son has passed class X.
Urging the police officials to inquire the accused's wife and her brother-in-law, the victim's parents said, "We also doubt if Dinesh's relatives had a hand in the murder."
Feeling lost in the minimal landscape of their house where she witnessed the murder, the victim's mother said, "On the day of incident, my daughter had gone to Dinesh's house to fetch water from their well. It was then that he attempted to misbehave with her. However, she managed to escape from him and returned home.
When she told me that Dinesh had been teasing her for quite sometime after narrating what happened then, I asked her to wait until my husband and son returned home before taking any step. Within a few minutes, Dinesh barged into our house with a machete, kicked me aside before attacking my daughter. He dragged her body to the main door of the house and beheaded her while I was helplessly holding his legs, begging him to leave her. While I was screaming for help, Dinesh mercilessly walked towards his house, with her head. Noticing him approach, his wife and brother-in-law rushed to the main road. He dropped the severed head in the middle of the road, and was later taken to the Attur police station by his family members."
When Express went to the accused's house, we found police deployed there to avoid any untoward incident. They said that the family members of the accused have shifted their house to Malliyakarai. Another relative of the accused, who was in the village, refused to comment on the incident.
When contacted, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) (Salem Range), Senthil Kumar, he said that a case was registered against the accused under various sections of IPC, SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). "Also, Dinesh was detained under Goondas Act. Soon, a chargesheet would be filed and the accused would be awarded severe punishment," Senthil assured.