Madras High Court Judge P Velmurugan, who is hearing the appeal from the convicts of the Vachathi violence case, visited the tribal hamlet on Saturday, March 4, in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. He inspected the village and held a brief discussion with the survivors who were brutally attacked by the government officials who entered the village in 1992 in search of sandalwood smugglers.
The judge was accompanied by Dharmapuri Collector K Shanthi, police officers and other officials from the district administration. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders Dillibabu and Shanmugam were also present along with a few other party workers. Media persons were not allowed during the visit, and Justice Velmurugan asked people not to take photographs. He inspected the village and enquired about the Forest Department check posts that were put up in 1992.
He also saw the banyan tree towards where the women were corralled after separating them from their families. They were beaten up and made to get on a truck. Later, he went to the lake in the village where the women were taken in the truck and raped. He ventured into the forest adjacent to the village. His visit to the village lasted for nearly two and a half hours. He left the place after briefly speaking to the residents.
Justice Velmurugan decided to visit the hamlet before delivering his verdict on criminal appeals pending since 2011 against the sentence given to 215 convicts. As per The Hindu, the judge reserved judgment on the appeals preferred by 126 personnel from the Forest Department, 84 police personnel, and five revenue officials. The judge informed the counsel representing the appellants and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which probed the case, that he would visit Vachathi before delivering his verdict.
Speaking to mediapersons, CPI(M) leader P Shanmugam – one of a few communist leaders who visited the Vachathi right after the incident in 1992 – expressed his hope that the verdict of the District and Sessions Court of Dharmapuri would be upheld. The Sessions court found 215 surviving of the 269 accused, guilty of the crime.
On June 20, 1992, 269 personnel from various departments visited the Malayali tribal hamlet, Vachathi to conduct a raid, based on a tip-off. They were hunting for locals involved in illegal tree felling and smuggling of sandalwood. Instead of a raid, the large contingent of government officials terrorised the entire hamlet, methodically entering homes, ransacking and setting fire to huts, killing livestock and assaulting men and women. They raped 18 women and then detained the tribals illegally at the forest range office at Harur.
The issue came to light after the CPI(M) started to fight for justice for the survivors who were brutally harassed in the systematic attack including sexual assaults. A writ petition was filed in the Madras High Court in 1992, and the case was transferred to CBI in 1995. In 1996, the CBI charge-sheeted 269 government officials from the Forest, Police, and Revenue Departments.
The state government filed an appeal against the CBI inquiry. However, a division bench dismissed the appeal in March of the same year. In April 1996, 244 accused were remanded in custody after CBI submitted its report to the Madras High Court. The case was committed to the District and Sessions Court, Dharmapuri, at Krishnagiri on October 10, 1996. On September 29, 2011, nearly 19 years after the incident, this designated trial court found the surviving 215 out of 269 accused guilty. Among the accused were four Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers. The imprisonment for them varied from one year to 10 years.