In the last 30 days alone, 10 Dalit youths across different towns in the State were murdered by caste Hindus under some guise or the other and Madurai alone accounted for three deaths, said Evidence Executive Director A. Kathir here on Friday.
The Tamil Nadu government remained a mute spectator to the atrocities against the Dalits and slackness in the investigation by the police had resulted in very low conviction rate. As a result, the Dalits were under a constant threat from caste Hindus and other forces, he alleged.
The Evidence, an NGO, which works for the uplift of Dalits and brings out atrocities, had visited the residence of Karthikraja, a 21-year-old Dalit youth who was brutally murdered by an armed gang at Silaiman near here on Thursday.
“A week ago, Kartikraja was abused by his friends in the locality, he had retaliated two days ago. As a sequel to this, the suspects, (friends) had taken a revenge by killing him, when he was attending the nature’s call in the morning with two of his relatives. The armed gang ensured that the youth had died,” the fact-finding team said.
Mr. Kathir said that despite cautioning the police about the threat calls received by the Dalit youths, their ‘nonchalant’ attitude led to the killing. If the police had acted swiftly, a few of the heinous crimes might have been prevented, he noted.
Meanwhile, a large number of Dalit activists and members from different outfits thronged the Collectorate here demanding action and arrest of the murderers. While police tried to pacify that they had arrested key suspects in the crime, the agitators demanded protection from such anti-socials.
The family members of Karthikraja submitted a memorandum to the Collector seeking compensation from the government and also demanded that the accused be detained under the Goondas Act.
According to Mr. Kathir, the 10 murder cases were reported in Tiruchi, Namakkal, Cheyyar, Thoothukudi, Udumalapet, Gudiyatham and Madurai in the last 30 days alone.