People flee 7 villages fearing arrest in lynching case

TIRUVANNAMALAI: Fearing arrest over Wednesday’s lynching incident that claimed the life of a 65-year-old woman, residents of Athimur, the epicentre of the horror, and six other neighbouring villages have deserted their homes and fled.

But for a handful of elderly women and school-going children, the villages – Athimur,

Thambukottan Paarai

, Tindivanam, Kaliyam,

Zambingkulam

,

Ganeshapuram

,

Vedakollaimedu and Kamatchipuram

– in

Tindivanam

panchayat wore a deserted look on Friday. An eerie silence pervaded the region.

According to officials of the revenue and police departments, there were around 3,000 families in the seven villages. Over 80% of the houses were locked.

At Athimur village, all but 15 to 20 houses, where elderly women and girl children stayed back, are locked. “There were no men in the village. Even boys above 12 were not seen,” said M R Vivekananthan, a freelance photographer based in Tiruvannamalai who visited the village on Friday.

A Sekar, village administrative officer (in charge) of Kaliyam village, said over 95% of the 1,300 families at Kaliyam and Tindivanam villages had fled.

So far, police have arrested 25 people, including a juvenile, in connection with the lynching. Though there was no police presence in and around the village, the fear of being arrested in the case has gripped the villagers. “Farm animals are left to fend for themselves. Agriculture activities too have come to a standstill,” he said.

Sources in the police department said the menfolk along with their families had gone to their relatives’ houses in other districts seeking asylum. Many had gone to their relatives’ houses in Bengaluru and Chennai. Several of them had even switched off their mobile phones.

The mangled car in the middle of Athimur village bears testimony to the brutal killing of 65-year-old Rukhmani, a native of Old Pallavaram. She along with her son-in-law R Gajendran and relatives K Venkatesan, 52, of Old Pallavaram, S Mohankumar, 45, and M Chandrasekaran, 33, from Malaysia, had come to offer prayers to their family deity at Thambukottan Paarai on Wednesday. They were mistaken for child lifters and brutally attacked by over 50 men, with hundreds of villagers looking on.

Gajendran is battling for life in the Christian Medical College Hospital where he underwent a surgery for head injuries.

Rukhmani’s son Gopinath has lodged a complaint with the Polur town police stating that the villagers had snatched 30 sovereigns of gold jewels and Rs 3 lakh from his mother and relatives Mohankumar and Chandrasekaran.

“We have received a complaint from the victim’s son and are investigating. By Saturday, we will secure a few more persons as we have tracked down their hideouts,” said a police officer privy to the investigation.

Tiruvannamalai superintendent of police R Ponni said, “We have launched a search for them,” the SP said, hinting that over 50 people are likely to be arrested.

Police have invoked Sections 147 (riot), 148 (riot, armed with deadly weapons), 294 (b) (using abusive language), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 307 (attempt to murder) and 302 (murder), among others, of the IPC against the accused.