A week after a 21-year-old Dalit youth G. Kathiresan was murdered by caste Hindus at Thirupanjeeli near Tiruchi, a three-member team from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) conducted inquiries in the case and met the victim’s parents and wife here on Friday.
The victim’s wife is a caste Hindu and they were married about six months ago.
Headed by the NCSC, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Director M. Madhiazhagan and comprising senior investigators of the panel S. Lister and A. Inian, the team inspected the scene of the crime, where the youth was murdered, besides perusing the records pertaining to the case at the Manachanallur police station.
The team members from Chennai spent nearly an hour with the victim’s parents, M. Ganesan, 49, and G. Mallika, 47, besides his wife Nandhini at Thirupanjeeli ascertaining facts about the murder on July 8.
The police have arrested three caste Hindus — V. Thangarasu, 57, and his two sons T. Baskar and T. Suresh of the same village — on the charge of killing Kathiresan and booked a case under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2016 against the trio.
The murder, according to the police, was committed after Kathiresan allegedly damaged the irrigation pipes laid on the land belonging to the accused.