TIRUPPUR: A 29-year-old man was allegedly assaulted and bitten by a group of caste Hindu men for sitting in front of them in Avinashipalayam town in Tiruppur district.
The district police arrested eight accused under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The victim, C Prathap, who works as a verification officer in a private bank in Tiruppur told TNIE that when he was with his friend, Rajesh at a shop in the town, watching the cricket match on his phone, one of the accused E.Navin Kumar, a member of the upper-caste community arrived at the shop.
"He (Navin) enquired about my caste to Rajesh and rebuked me for sitting in front of him and then made casteist remarks," Pratap told this daily.
When Prathap replied that he did not know about Navin Kumar or his caste, Navin allegedly took away Prathap's bike keys and forced him to apologise for his behaviour. Reportedly an argument broke out between the two, following which a few friends of Prathap intervened and pacified Navin Kumar.
However, just a few minutes later, Navin Kumar's friend Vivekanandan called Prathap over the phone and issued a death threat. Unable to take the 'casteist slurs' and threats, Prathap lodged a complaint with Avinashipalayam police on November 8.
On the same night, When Prathap was riding a bike, Navin Kumar and his friends rammed their car into his bike on Dharapuram main road in Koduvai. They allegedly trashed Prathap and took him to a coconut grove, where he was tied to a tree and beaten with iron rods.
A senior police officer said they rescued Prathap around midnight after they were alerted by Adi Tamilar Jananayaga Peravai president K Bowthan.
Based on the inputs from Prathap, the police arrested Navin Kumar (22), Nandakumar (26), and Ramesh (38) under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Five more persons, in connection with the case, were arrested later. One accused is on the run, the police said.