April 18, the Ponnamaravathi town in Pudukottai district, Tamil Nadu saw an uprising of men. Armed with yellow flags and wooden logs, groups of men from the Mutharayar community, a dominant caste group in the region, laid siege to the police station and ended up destroying a few vehicles parked there. They demanded justice for the women of their community, who were allegedly defamed in a WhatsApp video. The mob was dispersed off by the police on the promise that they would bring the perpetrators of the video to book within 24 hours.
On Friday, April 19, the mob hit the streets of Ponnamaravathi, armed with longer sticks and raising slogans, forcing shopkeepers to down the shutters. The protestors also fell trees on the arterial roads connecting Ponnamaravathi, thereby blocking access to the town. Stating that the police had not acted on its promise, the men engaged in a road roko in the middle of the town.
The video, which was at the root cause of the protest, had only voices and no faces. It was structured in such a manner that it resembled a conversation between two men about the pattern of votes in the region based on caste. It insuinated that women of the community were an 'easy catch'. The Mutharayar men who were protesting alleged that the video was made by men of a different community to insult the Mutharayar community.
The unprecedented law and order situation in Ponnamaravathi on April 19 prompted the District Collector to issue prohibitory orders under section 144 of the IPC and beefed up security in the town and surrounding villages. Meanwhile the police had also registered an FIR based on a complaint from the protesting group of men and had begun searching for the persons behind the offensive video.
First breakthrough
The first arrest in this case came on April 25, when a special team from Pudukottai arrested G Selvakumar (34) upon his landing in Chennai International Airport. He was employed with a company in Singapore and was picked up by the police immediately after he set foot in Chennai. Similarly, the police arrested Vasanth (30) from Thanjavur for plotting the act.
Based on the information provided by Selvakumar and Vasanth, the police went on to arrest M Sakthi (30) on April 26 and P Rangaiah (45) on April 27.
The police, based on the statements given by the four men, also picked up another four men -- S Sabarirajan (19), S Balaji (18), M Prakash (17) and V Murugesan (32) -- for facilitating the spreading of the video.
Questioning unravels weird reason
However, it is not the number of people arrested in connection with the case that has caught the attention of many. It is the reason behind creating the video that has stumped people.
As soon as the police picked up Selvakumar and Vasanth, the men allegedly confessed to conceptualising and shooting the video. They also claimed to belong to the Mutharayar community, the very community whose women, the video insulted.
According to the police, the men had recorded the video with an intention to unite the community against a common enemy- a fictional enemy in this case. The video was allegedly recorded in Singapore on the advice of Vasanth and featured the voices of Selvakumar’s friends.
This discovery was in total contradiction to what the complainants had suspected early on – that the video was the handy work of someone from another community.
Goondas Act
The Pudukottai police slapped Goondas Act against four men for creating and spreading the WhatsApp video, which sparked communal tension in Ponnamaravathi in April. The move came on Sunday, after the District Collector P Uma Maheswari signed off on the SP’s recommendation to invoke the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-offenders, Forest-offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum-grabbers and Video Pirates Act.
Speaking to TNM, Pudukottai District Collector P Uma Maheswari said that the decision was taken in order to set a precedent that such issues will be dealt with severely. “The police had investigated and the four men had accepted their roles in the crime which caused major communal disturbance in the region. So, the approval was given to add Goondas Act to their FIRs on Sunday,” she said. The Collector also added that the political affiliation, if any, of the eight men, is not clear at this point.
“As of now, caste seems to be the only unifier in all these eight men. There are no details about them being affiliated to any political party as yet,” she added.
The DSP of Ponnamaravathi told TNM that the four men, on whom Goondas Act has been slapped, were the main accused in the case.