MAYILADUTHURAI: Perambur police on Sunday arrested four caste Hindus for allegedly attacking a man from SC community and vandalising his house.
According to sources, this is the only SC family living in a street where caste Hindus are a majority and the family has been under pressure for the last two years to leave the area and move to an SC settlement.
The arrested were identified as K Keerthivasan (52), M Sivakumar (49), R Natarajan (55) and A Arivu (50) of Mela Mangainallur. According to sources, D Sathriyan (30) of Kappur received a phone call that a group of caste Hindus has gathered in front of a house, belonging to his family, at Road Street in Melamangainallur village and are verbally abusing his sister Sujatha who was in that house at that time.
When Sathriyan rushed to the spot, he found a group of caste Hindus dismantling the thatched roof of the house and cutting the bamboo poles of the roof. When Sathriyan questioned the group, they abused him using his caste name and asked why his family did not vacate the area and relocate to where SC people lived.
When he started recording the dismantling of the house on his phone camera, the group allegedly pushed him away and attacked him (Sathriyan) with bare hands and a log. They also snatched his gold chain before fleeing the spot after threatening him (Sathriyan).
One of Sathriyan’s relatives who came there arranged an ambulance and admitted him to Mayiladuthurai Government Hospital. Based on Sathriyan’s complaint, Perambur police registered a case under relevant sections of BNS, and SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and arrested the four persons. The police are on the lookout for a few more.
According to sources, since 2023, when Sathriyan’s father M Dakshinamoorthy (54), former panchayat president of Kappur, bought the house, caste Hindus, who mainly live there, have been pressurising the family to vacate the house. Some unidentified persons had also allegedly set fire to the haystack in Dakshinamoorthy’s house to force them out.
However, the issue had not been escalated to police then. Sources said that Dakshinamoorthy’s is the only SC family in the area.