Man who forced dalit village assistant to prostrate booked

Coimbatore: The rural police have registered a case against the man, who made a dalit village assistant to prostrate before him, under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Annur police have also booked 38-year-old K Gopalsamy, a resident of Gobirasipuram near Pogalur, for not allowing village administrative officer (VAO) Kalaiselvi to discharge her duty.
Earlier, district collector G S Sameeran had instructed superintendent of police (SP) S Selvanagarathinam to initiate criminal action against Gopalsamy, who had created a scene at Odderpalayam VAO’s office on Friday, by picking up a fight with Kalaiselvi and hurling cattiest slur at her 56-year-old assistant Muthusamy.
Muthusamy lodged a complaint with the Annur police, who booked Gopalsamy under Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(Va) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He was also booked under Section 353 of the IPC based on the VAO’s compliant, which was lodged separately.
The issue came to the collector’s attention after a video showing Muthusamy prostrating before Gopalsamy went viral on social media on Saturday. He subsequently formed a committee led by district revenue officer Leela Alex to probe the incident.