ARIYALUR: A 22-year-old man who died in an accident, was denied space at Thirupeyar graveyard in Thirumanur union of Ariyalur district owing to caste issues and had to be cremated outside on May 9.
The youth’s grieving mother, who later went to check the pyre, was saddened to see the half-burnt body and had to get her relatives’ help to complete the cremation.
The mother waited till next day's morning to ensure her sons' body is cremated properly. His father Karnan works in a saloon in Malaysia.
The deceased Karpagakumar(22), son of Karnan and Amsavalli, was running a saloon at Palli Agrakaram in Thanjavur district for two years.
Karpagakumar did not open his saloon for more than 40 days due to the lockdown.
On May 6, he went to check on his saloon and while travelling in a two-wheeler, a lorry that came in opposite direction hit him near Kalliyur.
Severely injured Karpagakumar was admitted to the Thanjavur medical college hospital. Despite treatment, he died on May 8 and his body was brought to Thirupeyar village on May 9 after autopsy.
Karpagakumar's community usually have dead bodies buried but not cremated. As he met with an accident and autopsy was done, the relatives wanted to cremate the body at the graveyard.
However, when the body was taken to the graveyard, the people of another community of the village opposed to burn the body. They argued that the graveyard was meant to their community. Relatives of the deceased engaged in verbal altercations for an hour.
As the information reached Keezhapalur police station, the cops rushed to the spot and held talks with the two groups. However, the other community people did not budge.
Later, the body was cremated at a place near the graveyard and relatives returned home.
Amsavalli said, "As per our custom we bury if someone dies. But we decided to cremate because my son died in an accident. But the other community people did not allow us to cremate in the graveyard."
"I went to check if my son's body was fully burned because the pyre was set up outside the graveyard. But I was shocked and cried when I saw the body was not fully burnt. So I burned my son's body completely," she added.
Karpagakumar's father Karnan, who was unable to attend his son's funeral, spoke to TNIE over phone.
He said, "I got stuck in Malaysia because of the coronavirus lockdown. Some casteist people opposed to cremate my son's body at the graveyard. When I heard about that, from here in Malaysia, I contacted the Keezhapalur police station for help. The graveyard at our village was built by the government. How one particular community people prohibit us from using it?"
Karnan said that he would complain about it to the CM's special cell.
In addition, he had also posted videos of the whole happenings on social media.
He demanded the district administration and the police to take against the people who prevented his son's cremation at the graveyard.
When TNIE contacted, Ariyalur Tahsildar Chandrasekar refused to comment on this issue. He added action would be taken regarding this after the coronavirus lockdown.