In another case of caste-based violence among school students in Tamil Nadu, more than 20 caste Hindu students belonging to the Urali Gounder community attacked a Dalit student and his grandmother in Karur district on Saturday, August 26, for laughing inside a bus. This is the third such attack in the state in 20 days. Velliyanai police have arrested four youths and booked them under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Jeeva, a class 10 student who belongs to the Arunthathiyar community (Scheduled Caste) and hails from Uppidamangalam Alliyagoundanur village in Karur district, was attacked by school and college students who belong to the Urali Gounder caste (Backward Class).
On August 25 evening, Jeeva took a government bus home when returning from the Government Higher Secondary School in Uppidamangalam, where he studies. While he was talking to a friend on the bus, a group of caste Hindu students of Rani Meyyammai School, Puliyur, reportedly cited his lowered caste position and asked why he was laughing at them. The students threatened Jeeva, saying that they would beat him up if he travelled on the same bus the next day. However, Jeeva brushed off the threats and chose to travel in the same bus on the next day, where he was beaten by the Urali Gounder students.
After the attack, Jeeva sought the help of his uncle, who reportedly questioned the attackers. Irked by this, a group of around 20 persons including the Urali Gounder students and their associates, whose ages range from 14 to 25, attacked Jeeva and his grandmother Kaliyammal in his village later that evening. After Jeeva’s parents passed away a few years back, he has been living with Kaliyammal. Village residents who rushed to the spot rescued the duo and took them to the Karur Government Medical College Hospital, where they are under treatment.
The Velliyanai police arrested four youngsters including Elango (19) and Manikandam (19), both college students, as well as two 17-year-old and 14-year-old school students. A case has been registered against them under sections 294(b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC, read with Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. Sections 3(1)(r) (intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate an SC/ST person), 3(1)(s) (abuses any SC/ST person by caste name), and 3(2)(va) (commits any offence specified in the Schedule, against a person or property, knowing that such person is a member of Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or Such Property belongs to such member) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were also invoked.
This is the third incident this month where a group of Caste Hindu students have targeted and attacked Dalit students. The first incident of caste fanaticism among students took place on August 9 in Nanguneri, Turunelveli, where a group of students brutally attacked a Dalit student and his sister. The student had been subjected to constant harassment for excelling in his studies. In another shocking incident on August 17, a class 11 student from the Pallar community in Kalugumalai, Thoothukudi, was attacked by 10 students who belong to the Maravar and Pandaram communities.
(The names of the accused have been withheld as The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 mandates that details of children in conflict with the law should not be disclosed).