Prostration incident near Coimbatore: Person who shot video booked

COIMBATORE: The Annur police in Coimbatore district have booked a person -- who shot a video which showed an Ottarpalayam panchayat employee belonging to a Schedule Caste community prostrating in front of a caste Hindu --on charges of creating enmity between two communities as video was edited to hide the truth.
The dispute between K Gopalsamy, a farmer, and village assistant P Muthusamy took place at Kurukalaiyampalayam in Ottarpalayam on August 6. The first video that came out on the next day showed as if Gopalsamy forced the village assistant to fall on his feet, stoking a controversy.
The Annur police registered a case against Gopalsamy based on the complaint from village administrative officer V Kalaiselvi under various sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (prevention of atrocities act) and the IPC. Gopalsamy went underground and is yet to be traced by the police.
But another video that surfaced on August 14 showed the village assistant slapping the farmer in the presence of the VAO Kalaiselvi. The incident is said to have taken place minutes before the village assistant prostrated in front of the farmer.
Following this, Muthusamy was booked by the police. Farmers had jumped into protest seeking action against the assistant and the village administrative officer. The district administration placed both of them under suspension on August 17.
In this backdrop, a revenue official from the Annur taluk office on Friday lodged a complaint with the Annur police seeking action against the person who shot the video and released it in parts to create communal disharmony.
The police booked a case under Section 153A (1) (b) (commits any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or is likely to disturb the public tranquility) of the IPC without naming anyone.
The Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, which staged a protest a couple of days ago, shutting shops in Annur taluk urging the police to arrest the village administrative officer and the assistant immediately, wrote to the chief minister seeking his intervention on Saturday.
They said that both of them had given false information in the inquiry ordered by the district collector G S Sameeran after the first video surfaced.