Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Residents protest Dalit death, allege torture

By P. Sudhakar

Tirunelveli June 16. Traffic on the north bypass road was thrown out of gear for nearly an hour this morning as residents of Manimutheeswaram under the Thatchanallur police limits staged a road roko, after a Dalit youth from the village, who was taken to police station for interrogation, died under mysterious circumstances.

According to the protesters, a team, on Saturday night, picked up L. Bhoominaathan alias Kuttiyappan(35) from his house for questioning him on his cousin, P. Santhosh (25), who eloped with his girlfriend and daughter of a head-constable, P. Maria (21), recently. The team also picked up Arumuga Nainar (58), maternal uncle of Santhosh.

Though the parents and wife of Bhoominaathan, Priya (30), claimed that he had any connection with Santhosh, the police forcibly took him for interrogation.

"While Arumuga Nainar was released on Saturday night, a weary Bhoominathan, returned home only around at 10.30 a.m. the next day. He wept a lot alleging that the police tortured him from Saturday midnight to Sunday morning and he could not eat and sleep properly.

"We could see the torture marks on his body. When his wife tried to wake him up this morning, she found him dead," wailed Lakshmanan, victim's father.

As the news spread, about 400 people, including a large number of women, gathered and staged road rook. Tension began to mount gradually as the villagers raised slogans against the alleged "police excess" and the demanded higher-ups to bring the "culprits to book". As relatives of Bhoominaathan, including his parents and pregnant wife, were crying continuously, the situation became volatile.

However, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Gopalakrishnan, rushed to the spot and pacified the crowd. The protesters withdrew their agitation and allowed the police to take the body for a post-mortem examination.

In the evening, the Revenue Divisional Officer, Tirunelveli, Sundaravalli, conducted an enquiry, for which advocates and representatives from People's Watch, human rights organisation, were denied permission.

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