Villupuram (Tamil Nadu): The age-old pernicious practice of humiliating and suppressing the Dalits seems not to have died down as the recent incident reported from Villupuram district has served as yet another indicator of the trend.
Police have registered a case against a section of caste Hindus under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for making thee Dalit elderly men fall at their feet in an apologetic posture at a panchayat session at Ottanendhal near Tiruvennainallur in Villupuram district.
It is learned that for the past couple of days, a video of the scene of the three Dalit men falling down before the panchayat as a token of their apology in a quarrel had gone viral, grabbing media’s attention massively. Consequently, the police have swung into action and booked the case against a section of the caste Hindus.
The Superintendent of Police, Radhakrishnan, said, “We had got a tip-off that at Ottanendhal a temple festival was organized on Wednesday (May 12, 2021) in violation of the Covid protocol." The police rushed to the village and made the festival stop midway, pointing out the severity of coronavirus hitting the country.
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But, in the evening on the day, a music orchestra was arranged by some youths at a stationary van. The police again intervened and seized the musical instruments. However, on a request from the colony that the music artists should not, on their account, be affected, the police returned the music instruments to them.”
Miffed at the sudden halting of the temple festival after incurring heavy expenses, a group of people picked a quarrel with the Dalit colony youths who, they charged, had informed the police of the conduct of the temple festival flouting the Covid protocol. The issue went to the panchayat where after altercation and arguments the three Dalit elders admitted to their mistake and apologized by falling down in the presence of the villagers.
After a video of the humiliation of the Dalits went viral on Friday, the two sections of the people lodged complaints with the police, each leveling charges against the other. Cases against the two groups have been booked for conducting the temple festival flouting the Covid protocol and for humiliating the Dalits, added the SP.
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