Narikurava woman stabs another, held

Chennai: Police arrested a narikurava woman after she stabbed another woman from her community in a fight that broke out over setting up a shop on a pavement at Mamallapuram on Wednesday. Police identified the accused as Ashwini, 23, a resident of Poonjeri village near Mamallapuram. Ashwini shot to limelight in 2021 after she was denied food at a temple and she conveyed her angst in a video about the ill-treatment meted out to her community. The video went viral. It caught the attention of HR & CE minister P K Sekar Babu, who reached out to her and shared a meal with her. On Diwali in 2021, chief minister M K Stalin visited Ashwini’s house and had food there. He distributed land pattas and other documents to people of the Narikurava community.Police said Ashwini had a long-standing dispute with a woman Nadhiya of the same community for the past few months. While Ashwini was a hawker selling stringed beads, bangles and other knick knacks near Mamallapuram, Nadhiya ran a shop in the same locality. They kept fighting over setting up a shop on the pavements.On Tuesday night, a quarrel broke out between the two again on the same issue and in a fit of rage, Ashwini attacked Nadhiya with a knife. She was injured all over her body and rushed to a hospital. Ashwini was booked on the charges of attempt to murder by Mamallapuram and she was remanded in judicial custody.