In a shocking incident, a 24-year-old Dalit man was lynched near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, when he squatted by the road to defecate, his family alleged.
The incident took place on Wednesday, and the police on Friday arrested seven people after videos of the torture began circulating, reported The Indian Express. Preliminary reports suggested that Sakthivel belongs to the SC Adi Dravida community, a Dalit caste and the village where he was attacked is dominated by Vanniyars, a socially powerful OBC community in Tamil Nadu. There have been several such similar incidents in the past.
A case has been registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with IPC Section 302 (punishment for murder).
An allegation that has surfaced now is that Sakthivel was beaten for allegedly flashing at a woman, the report said.
A senior police officer told The Indian Express that a few villagers had seen the victim remove his pants fully before squatting on the roadside, which allegedly startled a woman walking by.
Recounting the incident, R Theivanai, the 26-year-old elder sister of the victim, said Sakthivel was attacked “only because he was a Dalit”.
She narrated to the publication that Sakthivel had finished his night duty at the petrol pump and reached home on Wednesday morning. He had received a call from his colleagues, asking him to come with his documents for some official verification. He ran out of fuel on the way and had informed his family, he was also not feeling well and ‘said he would sit by the roadside to defecate.’
In some time, the family received a call from some man who said Sakthivel was tied up and that he was in their custody at Boothur Hills.
Theivanai rushed to the location with a relative on a two-wheeler and her six-month-old baby. She found Sakthivel bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose, and saw over 15-20 people kicking him to the ground, reported The Times of India. Police allegedly reached only two hours after the violence began.
The family managed to get him out of there and it was only after they reached home, did they realise that Sakthivel had passed away.
Villupuram SP D Jayakumar told The Indian Express, that they are probing the caste angle to the murder.
(WIth inputs from The Times of India and The Indian Express.)
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