The Tamil Nadu government submitted to the Madras High Court on Thursday that the 1091 and 1077 hotline numbers had been set up for inter-caste couples, who can complain about any threats they are facing. These phone numbers are uniform across Tamil Nadu.
However, when TNM tried contacting both these numbers, neither was an inter-caste couple hotline. 1077 was out of service while 1091 is a women’s complaints cell of the Chennai Police Control Room.
The response was submitted in a case filed concerning the caste killing of 20-year-old Vimala Devi from Usilampatti, Tamil Nadu. Vimala Devi, who in love with a Dalit man, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in October 2014. While her family claimed that she had been ‘found hanging’ in their home, they cremated her body without informing authorities of the death.
Dileep Kumar, Vimala Devi's husband, had sought a CBI enquiry into her death and, in November 2014, the Madras High Court had ordered a CBI probe.
Directing the police department to take disciplinary action on the personnel who had failed to act on the case, the Madras High Court had also ordered the Tamil Nadu government to institute special cells for complaints from inter-caste couples.
Further, in April 2016, the Madras High Court had ordered a slew of protective measures for inter-caste couples, including a safe place for them to stay, counselling for their parents and sufficient public funds to to prevent caste crimes.
In 2017, the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front had moved the Madras High Court stating that none of these measures had been put in place within the time stipulated by the Court against then state Home Secretary Apurva Varma.
The matter came up before Justice Satyanarayana Murthy on Thursday.
The State Home Department submitted that disciplinary action had been taken against the investigation police officers in Vimala Devi's case by cancelling their increment for a period of three years.
The Court is set to hear the case again on August 9.