12 days after 4 assault tribal boy one held

CHENNAI: More than 12 days after four men beat a tribal boy with logs for standing in a public place and speaking with a dalit friend at Mambakkam near Thirukazhukundram, about 70km from the city, police arrested one man and are hunting for the others. All the accused, belonging to the vanniyar community, were booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, said a police officer.
The village is dominated by the vanniyars with a scattering of Irulas (a scheduled tribe) and some scheduled castes living in the ADW Colony, he said, adding that it had a long history of clashes among various groups. On June 18, the officer said, S Kathavarayan, a 17-year-old Irula boy, was with his friend Vijayakumar, a dalit, near a grocery shop along the main road when a car found it difficult to cross the road because of a parked auto. The car driver got out, moved the auto aside and continued, but auto driver Anna Durai scolded the two boys, allegedly for standing and talking there, the officer added. When they objected, he slapped Kathavarayan.
Later, after some Irula elders questioned the auto driver’s act, four vanniyar men assaulted Kathavarayan, his brother Krishna and their mother Valli at 9pm, the officer said. Their relatives were also attacked and abused using caste names.
All the injured were admitted to the Chengalpet hospital. Valli’s complaint was registered on June 22 by the Thirukazhukundram police after she was made to run from pillar to post, said Lalitha of SASY, a human rights group whose volunteers arrived the next day and helped them legally.
While Valli told TOI that the Irulas were scared to come out of their houses after she was warned against pursuing the case, a senior police officer said houses of the accused were locked and others warned against threatening the Irulas.