A team from the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) was stopped by the police from visiting the Dalit colony in Vengavayal village of Pudukkottai district on Monday, May 1. The village has been in the news since a grave caste crime came to light in December last year, when the water tank used by Dalits in the village was found contaminated with human excreta. A group of TNUEF leaders including state general secretary K Samuel Raj, and Pudukkottai district leaders Salomim and Jeevanandham were stopped by the police from meeting Vengavayal residents.
Condemning the police restrictions, TNUEF issued a statement which said, “Neither the police nor revenue officials have issued any order so far prohibiting people from meeting the residents of Vengavayal or entering the village.” The statement also alleged that it was illegal to stop anti-caste organisations and other groups from meeting Vengavayal residents by claiming that it could create a law and order issue, without a formal directive in writing from the district administration.
It further said that police curbs on organisations trying to visit the Dalit residents of Vengavayal was undemocratic, coming on the heels of protests by members of the dominant Mutharaiyar and Agamudayar castes against such visits. Vengavayal village falls under the Muthukadu panchayat, and the statement noted that the panchayat president Padma’s husband Muthiah — who has been named by the Dalit Intellectual Collective as one of the suspects who could have allegedly contaminated the water tank over political or personal disputes — had also objected to activists and politicians visiting the Dalit colony in Vengavayal.
TNUEF also alleged that when they brought the issue to the notice of Pudukkottai district Collector Kavitha Ramu and other senior police officers on Tuesday, they refused to intervene. "It is a democratic right of organisations and individuals to meet people affected [by caste crimes], empower them, and provide legal assistance. Pudukottai police have no right to stop us with mere verbal orders," the statement further said. TNUEF tried to visit Vengavayal days after eight Dalit residents refused to give their blood samples to be matched with DNA material found in the contaminated water, alleging that this was being done to frame the victims themselves in the crime.
The Vengavayal caste crime came to light in December last year, after government doctors advised the residents of the Dalit colony to check for water contamination, as many of their children had fallen sick. The case was initially probed by the Pudukkottai district police, but was later transferred to the CBCID (Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department) on January 14 this year.
In its statement, the TNUEF mentioned that if this “anti-democratic” approach of the police continues, the organisation would stage protests against the Pudukkottai police across the state.