The social fabric of Tamil Nadu, widely acknowledged as a progressive State, is put to severe strain every now and then by appalling acts of atrocities against Dalits. The most recent of such cases — the dumping of human faeces in an overhead tank that supplied drinking water to Dalit families at Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district — remains unresolved even nearly four months after the State’s premier investigation agency, the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID), began its investigation. A one-man commission, appointed by the Madras High Court, has also begun a parallel inquiry.
The hamlet, which can be reached by a barely motorable road branching off from the Tiruchi-Pudukottai National Highway, remains heavily guarded as its 20-odd Dalit families live close to Eraiyur, which is dominated by intermediate caste members.
Around last Christmas, some Dalits, especially children, started taking ill. Water contamination was suspected, and youngsters who checked the tank found the faeces floating inside. The victims were left shaken and so were social activists. Incidents of discrimination against Dalits by people of dominant castes are not new, but the sheer perversion of the act in Vengaivayal was disturbing.
The police booked a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the Indian Penal Code and formed multiple probe teams. But as weeks passed by, activists and political parties, especially the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Left parties, grew restive over the delay in arresting the perpetrators of the crime.
In mid-January, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin told the Assembly that his government will act firmly against those indulging in such demeaning acts. As the issue refused to die down, the case was transferred to the CB-CID.
Pudukottai Collector Kavitha Ramu, who visited the village a day after the incident came to light, found the prevalence of the ‘two-tumbler’ system in which separate glasses are kept aside for Dalits and for others to serve tea. She also led a group of Dalits into Eraiyur’s Sri Ayyanar temple, where they had allegedly been denied entry for years.
Curiously, none of the State Ministers, especially S. Regupathy and Siva. V. Meyyanathan, who represent the district, visited the village immediately after the incident. They did so only around Pongal, nearly 20 days later, along with the Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare, N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj. To promote harmony, they partook in a ‘Samathuva Pongal’ (a community feast) and led a public darshan at the Sri Ayyanar temple.
Activists viewed the temple entry as a diversionary tactic and felt that the government was trying to play down the incident. There were calls for demolishing the water tank. The authorities desisted, contending it was key evidence in the case. The construction of a new water tank, to replace the contaminated one, attracted criticism too. It was argued that supplying water to Dalits from an exclusive tank in itself amounted to discrimination.
In the absence of any known eyewitnesses or surveillance cameras in the hamlet, the investigators have had to largely depend on circumstantial evidence and possible scientific corroboration. Dalits of the village are aghast that despite being the victims, they too are being viewed as suspects. One of them moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court against the CB-CID’s decision to seek blood samples from him for a DNA test. The agency had sought to conduct DNA tests, with the approval of the Special Court for exclusive trial of cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, on suspects from both communities in an attempt to try and match them with samples of the faecal matter found in the water tank. It has inquired over 150 persons, and more suspects could be asked to undergo the DNA tests. But this again is seen as a delaying tactic by the activists, who say the investigators ought to look for the persons who dumped the faeces rather than trying to trace the origin of the faeces.
With the Madras High Court deciding to wait for two months for the report of the one-man commission instead of ordering a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, as sought by a public interest litigant, the inquiry by the retired High Court judge M. Sathyanarayanan has raised expectations. The victims, who are haunted by the humiliation, deserve answers.
