The body of an 8-year-old girl Dalit was found dead in Thoothukudi’s Sathankulam area on July 15. The Sathankulam police arrested two 19-year-olds, Mutheeswaran and Nandeeswaran, the former being her neighbour.
While the body of the child was sent to Tirunelveli Government Hospital for postmortem, relatives of the deceased have been protesting outside the hospital, refusing to accept the body, demanding compensation and a proper probe into the case.
Police tell TNM that initial investigations and a doctor's report following a post mortem have revealed that the child was not sexually assaulted.
The 8-year-old from Indira Nagar in Kalvilai village in Sathankulam had gone to Mutheeswaran’s (accused one, also a Dalit) house to watch television. Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police Jayakumar tells TNM that the accused confessed to the killing, which was done in a sudden fit of the moment.
“The girl would often visit their house to watch television. That afternoon when the incident took place, Mutheeswaran had a quarrel with his father, who has mental disabilities. When she intervened, he scolded her and asked her to leave. When she picked up a small stone and threw it at him, he strangled her,” he explains.
“The child immediately fell unconscious. They then put her inside a plastic drum and keep it closed for about an hour. She may have survived had he taken her to the hospital immediately,” the SP adds.
Mutheeswaran had then called his friend Nandeeswaran (accused two, from a dominant caste community). The duo carried the drum in Nandeeswaran’s bike and dropped it in a canal a short distance away. Residents of the area found the body, following which police rushed to the spot around 2.30 in the afternoon.
A case has been registered on the two under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Speaking to TNM, Thirunelveli’s Deputy Inspector General of Police Praveen Kumar Abinapu says, “The postmortem just concluded. Investigations are in progress. The family has refused to take the body and is demanding for some compensation in the form of land patta.”