More than a month after the Tamil Nadu government entrusted retired judge V Sathyanarayanan to probe the caste atrocity perpetrated against the Dalits of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district, the judge visited the village on Saturday (May 6) and commenced the probe.
Human excreta was found dumped in a water tank supplying water to the Dalit population in the village on December 2022.
Sathyanarayanan, accompanied by district collector Kavitha Ramu and superintendent of police Vandita Pandey, inspected the water tank.
A 'farce'
The local people, to whom TNIE Online spoke, were skeptical about the probe.
They call the ongoing investigation a "farce." They point out that it took over a month for the panel to even visit the village.
Dalit couple Kannadasan and Latha expressed displeasure over the progress of the investigation into the caste cruelty. They denounced the lethargic approach of the DMK-led government in the case.
They feel that the probe could be another "eyewash." They found fault with the investigating authority for not interacting with the villagers and for acting without any intent to bring the culprits to book.
Latha said that the discrimination in the village is more deep-seated. She said untouchability is inherent in Vengaivayal. The defiling of the water was a planned move and not a random act of some miscreants, she said.
EDITORIAL | Tear down systems that uphold caste bias
The couple recalled that the Dalits of the village carried out a prolonged struggle in 2017 to get regular drinking water supply. "The atrocity perpetrated against us this time shows the vengeance of the dominant caste people," they noted.
The case
The case was initially probed by the Pudukottai District police and subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch - CID of the Tamil Nadu police on January 14 this year by the Director-General of Police (DGP) C Surendra Babu. Even after three months of the incident, there was not a single development in the CB-CID investigation and no arrests were made.
Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation ( PIL) petition filed by advocate Rajkamal, who is a member of Tiruvallur-based NGO Tamil Kalaikalam Trust, led to the formation of a one-man commission to investigate the probe.
The Madras High Court appointed retired High Court judge Justice V Sathyanarayanan as the head of a one-man commission to probe the incident and submit a report within two months.