THOOTHUKUDI: As many as 11 Dalit and Caste Hindu students of a government higher secondary school in Kalugumalai near Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu were arrested for allegedly fighting between themselves over the issue of a caste Hindu student playing caste songs glorifying their caste in the classroom.
The incident happened on November 7 when Karan (16), a Class XI student, played songs on his mobile phone. His classmates alleged that the songs glorified his caste. Dalit students, who did not approve of it, complained to their teachers after which one of them seized the phone from the boy.
Unhappy with the seizure of the mobile phone, Karan shared the incident with his friend Krishnamoorthy (18).
Later, Krishnamoorthy along with three more students—Sakthi (16), Muthuselvam (17) and Santhanapandi (12)—attacked a Dalit student, Karthik Raja (15), thinking that he was the one to have informed the teachers about the incident. The teachers' decision to seize the phone also didn't go down well with them.
Later, during the lunch break when Dalit students came to know about the incident, five of them—Madhi (16), Ganesh Aravindh (15), Selvaraj (16), Maries Kannan (17) and Rajkumar (17)—joined hands with Karthik Raja and attacked Krishnamoorthy.
Unable to control the situation, the teachers informed the police, who registered two cases and arrested all the 11 students involved in the incident.