Vachathi, a small village located about 50 km from Dharmapuri, was unusually active on the morning of Saturday, March 4. Streets were being frantically swept, dozens of chairs were placed on the school playground, and administrative officials including the District Collector of Dharmapuri were coordinating with the residents to make sure all arrangements were in place. The hamlet, occupied largely by people of the Malayali tribe (classified under Scheduled Tribes), was setting the stage to welcome Madras High Court judge P Velmurugan. His visit came ahead of an impending verdict in connection with the vicious police excess unleashed in this quaint village nearly three decades ago.
Padma (name changed), one of the residents of Vachathi, is rather unhappy about the judge’s visit and the commotion it seems to be creating in the village. “Though it has been thirty years since the incident, we are just beginning to forget it and move on with our lives. Now, when everyone is asking us to narrate what happened, we are forced to relive it all over again,” she said.
The incident she is referring to happened on June 20, 1992, when 155 forest officials, 108 police officers, and six revenue officers entered Vachathi and attacked the residents of the village, claiming that they were protecting notorious forest bandit Veerappan and helping him smuggle sandalwood. Eighteen women, including Padma, were raped and tortured by government officials, men assaulted and beaten up, houses looted and ransacked. Even their cattle were not left behind. A total of 105 people, including women and children, were arrested and jailed for three months.
The lake in Vachathi where the women were taken to and raped by government officials
The attack came to light after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) members heard of the incident from some of Vachathi’s residents, who had fled to the Chitteri hills after they were released from jail. A writ petition was filed in the Madras High Court in 1992 and the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) three years later. In 1996, the CBI found all 269 government officials guilty of the crime and charge-sheeted them. Though the then All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government filed an appeal against the CBI inquiry, it was dismissed.
On September 29, 2011, close to two decades after the incident, the District and Sessions Court in Krishnagiri found the surviving 215 out of the 269 government officials guilty. Among those accused were four Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers. The accused persons were sentenced to prison and their sentences ranged from one to ten years. Judge Velmurugan decided to visit the village before delivering a verdict on the criminal appeals pending since 2011 against the sentence given to the convicts.
Revathi (name changed) had come to Vachathi, her maternal village, on March 3 because she heard the judge was visiting. She remembers everything that happened in 1992, clear as day. “Just like how I cannot forget the work that I do everyday, I cannot forget what happened to me.”
One of the rape survivors, Revathi was around 16 or 17 years of age when the assault happened. She was married off around a year later, and now lives in Salem with her husband and two daughters. “Since we did not have any money, we could not educate our daughters. Now we have gotten both of them married and they are leading their own lives with their husbands,” she says.
When asked what she thinks would happen after the judge visits, she said nothing major would change in their lives. “The incident happened nearly three decades ago. We came to know from CPI(M) members that the government officials were given punishment. But how will that change our lives? We still have to go to work everyday if we want to earn. Maybe the government can give jobs to the educated people in our village. That might at least help our families,” she said.
Revathi’s sentiment was shared by the other women in Vachathi. Even when Velmurugan briefly interacted with them, the women said that they wanted better houses to live in because the ones built by the government after the incident were falling apart, and they did not have the money to carry out those renovations by themselves. The government officials who interacted with the judge also said that while the basic needs of Vachathi’s residents were met, scholarships and employment for their educated youth would go a long way in helping the village.
One of the many houses in Vachathi with roofs that are falling apart
Indrani, who has lived in Vachathi all her life, believes no good can come from dwelling on the past. She was eight months pregnant with her third child when she was arrested. She eventually gave birth in prison, but lost the child two years later. Her other two daughters also died quite young. Now she lives with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and two-year-old grandson.
“We were broken, but what could we do? If I kept worrying about the past, my husband and I could not have raised our son,” Indrani said. Her son did not study after Class 10 and took up a job as a bus conductor for a private bus in Harur. “But the money from that is not enough to keep a family running. We used to have a few goats, but they were slaughtered and cooked by government officials when we were in jail. We could not afford to buy cattle after that. We could not even afford to repair our broken roof, how could we buy goats?” she asked.
While she continues to bear the brunt of the violence of 1992, Indrani wants better things for her son and grandson. “I hope that my son will be able to get a government job and that my grandson will go to college.”
While the residents of Vachathi, especially the women, want to put the past behind them, emotions still run high when they recall the 1992 incident. Perunthayi, one of the oldest women in the village, curses the government officials who attacked them to this day. A formidable woman even in her late 70s, Perunthayi claimed that she had confronted forest department officials who were allegedly smuggling sandalwood and selling it to traders. She also believes that her actions led to the government officials raiding the village as a way of “seeking revenge.”
“I was in my 40s when the incident happened. When I came back from jail, I could not recognise our village. They did not spare anything, not even our clothes and utensils. Our houses were completely destroyed. How will we forget this?” Perunthayi asked.
Expressing disappointment in the way the government handled the case, Perunthayi alleged that not all of the survivors received the compensation provided by the government. “The ruling governments forgot about our village after announcing the compensation,” she said.
Pushpa, Perunthayi’s daughter-in-law, was in Class 5 when the incident happened. She had to stay in the village school until the people who were arrested came back to the village. A single mother of two daughters, Pushpa feels that while their family has had their share of suffering because of the incident, it is time to focus on the future.
“I married off my eldest daughter after she finished Class 12. But her husband passed away less than a year after their marriage, so she lives with us. I did not want to make the same mistake with my second daughter. She was able to get a scholarship and is studying Physics at Valluvar College in Karur,” Pushpa said. She hopes that her daughter will be able to get the education that she never did.
Vachathi’s residents seem largely unaware of the reason behind P Velmurugan’s visit or what his verdict is about. What they need is more assistance from the government, for the betterment of their and their children’s lives. Several residents of Vachathi who spoke to TNM said they were hopeful that their children will study and even receive a college education if the government assists them.
The newly constructed school at Vachathi
While showing this reporter around Vachathi, Padma said the government had recently renovated the school in the village and more children are enthusiastic about education. Baby, a Class 12 student at the school, said boys and girls in her class want to get college degrees instead of discontinuing their studies like most of their parents. “I want to study nursing and work in a hospital someday. If my parents are able to afford it, I will definitely go to college,” she said.