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Tamil Nadu: 10 upper-caste Hindus booked for asking shop owners to avoid selling to Dalits
Vanniyars and Dalits are dominant in members among the nearly 200 families in Edhinemili. The town has just 6 shops, including those selling grocery, vegetables, and all of them are owned by Vanniyars.
Police in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district have filed a case against 10 upper caste men for asking shop owners to not sell grocery and food items to Dalits, officials said on Saturday.
The action has been initiated against nine Vanniyar men and one woman in Edhinemili village under Gingee block. The accused are S Ravichandran, E Natarajan, G Pichandi, P Maniyarasu, E Ravi, M Suresh, Jansi, E Nataraj, K Ezhumalai and T Sundaram.
Vanniyars and Dalits are dominant in members among the nearly 200 families in Edhinemili, about 20km away from Gingee town. Edhinemili has just six shops, including those selling grocery, tea, vegetables and meat, and all of them are owned by Vanniyars.
An inquiry officer with Gingee police station said the accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Civil Rights Act.
M Devaprakash, a Dalit from Edhinemili village, said these men had conducted an illegal meeting and passed a resolution against Dalits on October 31.
“To harass Dalits, the upper-caste Vanniyar men had passed a resolution and made Dandora announcements urging the Vanniyar shop owners not to sell products, including food, water, and other basic amenity based items, to Dalit customers. This is absolutely a practise of untouchability against the Dalits,” Devaprakash said in his complaint.
“If these shop owners avoid the Edhinemili Dalits, Dalits have to go up to 20 kilometres to Gingee town to even purchase a matchbox,” Devaprakash said.
Members of the upper caste group refuted the charges against them.
“We have not passed any resolution. Police have booked cases against our men on fraudulent charges. We are ready to face it legally,” said M Thirunavukkarasu, an upper-caste man from Edhinemili.
A senior police officer with the office of Gingee’s deputy superintendent of police (DSP) said the problem between the upper caste and Dalits has been there since August over erecting a hoarding in support Thol Thirumavalavan, the president of the Dalit Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) party.
“Dalits had erected a hoarding in Edhinemili on August 17 to greet Thirumavalavan. However, some unknown people had torn the banner. Dalits were up-in-arms against upper-caste Hindus. Therefore, tension erupted in Gingee town,” the officer cited above said.
However, tehsildar of Gingee had conducted a peace meeting on October 30 and both the Dalits and upper-caste Hindus reached a compromise.
When HT tried to contact Gingee’s deputy superintendent of police (DSP), K Needhirajan, his associate who picked the call said the officer was in a meeting.
One of the DSP’s associates said on the condition of anonymity that a special inquiry officer would be appointed for the further proceedings of the case.
