Demanding a thorough probe into the incidents that led to the attack on Scheduled Caste residents and their houses at Ponparappi village in Ariyalur district on April 18, the day of election, a fact-finding team of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has also called upon the Director General of Police to order an inquiry on the actions of the police in the village during the day.

Possible attacks

A probe should be ordered to find out whether the response of the police during the day was adequate and whether there was any intelligence input on possible attacks in the wake of instances of VCK leader and party candidate Thol.Thirumavalavan and his rival being prevented from canvassing for votes in a few villages, including Ponparappi in the Chidambaram constituency. The inquiry should also go into the preventive measures taken by the district police, the team said in its report.

The team — comprising G. Saraswathi, National Vice-President, PUCL, K. Saravanan, State general secretary, PUCL, T.N. and Puducherry, Selvamanian, S. Hassan Mohamed and Tamil Ilavarasan, all social activists — visited the village on April 24. After some initial resistance from the police to allow them free access, the team managed to interact with the villagers, the report claimed.

‘Severely attacked’

Terming the violence an attack on SCs, rather than a group clash, the team said houses, vehicles and residents of Gandhi Nagar, the SC habitation, were severely attacked by Vanniars belonging to Ponparappi and neighbouring villages.

The argument that the intent was to incite violence and prevent SCs from voting cannot be rejected, the team held. The Election Commission should ensure that those who were unable to vote from both sides are given a chance to exercise their democratic right.