TENKASI: A village that broke the law by selling its chief’s post to the highest bidder for money has wronged twice over by ostracising the family of the man who won the bid but failed to pay up the money in full. The Sivagiri police in Tenkasi have now booked three residents of Duraisamiyapuram village under for allegedly ostracising the family members of former panchayat president Thangavel who won the president’s post for a bid amount of Rs 1.3 lakh in 2011 but paid only Rs 1 lakh.
Police initiated action after T Deepak Rajappa filed a complaint saying after he raised his voice against the social ostracism, his family members were abused and threatened in person and on social media. The police FIR named C Antony, V Singaraj and V Sangiliraj as accused.
“In 2011, our villagers announced an auction for the panchayat president post for Rs 1.3 lakh in violation of law. My father Thangavel became panchayat president of Duraisamiyapuram panchayat promising to pay the auction amount, but he died in 2016.
As we could not pay Rs 30,000 of the total auction amount to the villagers, our family was not allowed to bury my father’s body in the common cemetery. We were allowed to bury his body only after my brother fell at the villagers’ feet and after we paid the remaining auction amount of Rs 30,000 along with a penalty of Rs 30,000. Since I strongly opposed the villagers’ illegal decision, the residents ostracised me, my wife, and our two children,” he said.
Rajappa further said the villagers stopped talking to his family members. “We are not allowed to take water from the common tap. Shopkeepers stopped selling groceries to us. We are not allowed to enter the village temple. I filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission and a petition before the Sivagiri Judicial Magistrate, demanding justice,” he said. Rajappa said he had submitted video recordings of the abusive language used by the villagers against him to the police. “On September 18, 2023, I was once again humiliated by the villagers. The accused also issued death threats to me,” he added.
He said he had filed complaints with the police in 2019, 2021, and 2023, demanding registration of FIR against some villagers. “But the police refused to register case. After my repeated complaints, the police finally registered a case on January 27 against three persons,” Rajappa said. When contacted, a police official told TNIE they had begun an inquiry.