Allowing the petition filed by a woman who lost her second son 43-year-old son, Arumugaraja due to caste atrocity, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the State government to grant a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the woman.
The womansaid that no protection was given to the family despite the threat by caste Hindus.
Justice S.S. Sundar directed the State to grant ₹25 lakh compensation to the 72-year-old woman, K. Rukmani from Thoothukudi district, a member of a Scheduled Caste community. In her petition filed in 2015, Rukmani said said the family faced discrimination at the hands of a group of caste Hindus. The woman said she had filed a petition before the court in 2013 seeking police protection. The court ordered adequate protection to the woman and her family and directed the Thoothukudi district administration to conduct a peace committee meeting. The woman said that only her family turned up at the meetings. In these circumstances, in 2015, she said that her son Arumugaraja was hacked to death by a member of the other group. The police may have registered a case, but she lost her son for good.
She said that though the State had given the family a statutory compensation of ₹5 lakh, the amount would not compensate the death of her son. As her other sons were away, she told the court that it was her second son who took care of her till his death.