Ex-Kangayam municipal chief booked for harassing women

Tirupur: The

Kangayam

all women police have filed a case against former Kangayam municipal commissioner

M Muthukumar

for sexually harassing women sanitary workers and for making derogatory casteist remarks.Muthukumar is now the commissioner of Thruthuraipoondi municipality. During his stint as the Kangayam municipal commissioner, he forced women sanitary workers to clean his house and toilet, the FIR filed on Friday said. “He sexually harassed a woman sanitary worker in August 2021 while she was cleaning his house. He threatened her with dire consequences if she revealed the matter to anyone and made derogatory remarks against her caste. It later came to light that he had sexually harassed two more women workers.”In September 2021, the survivors submitted a petition against Muthukumar to Tirupur collector

S Vineeth

with the help of the Dalit Liberation Movement-Tamil Nadu. They also lodged a police complaint seeking arrest of Muthukumar and his associate Karthikeyan, a municipality worker. They later moved the district court.On February 21, 2022, principal district & sessions judge

Swarnam J Natarajan

ordered police to register a case against Muthukumar and Karthikeyan.“We have two months to complete the investigation process. The accused are yet to be arrested,” deputy superintendent of police R Dhanarasu told TOI.Muthukumar has been booked under various sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 and Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act, 2002.