Dalit rights activists have urged the government to take stringent action against a juvenile stalker who killed an 18-year-old Dalit girl in Tirunelveli district on October 2. The 17-year-old boy, who belonged to the Nadar (categorised as Backward Class) community, had stalked Sandhiya, a native of Thiruppani Karisalkulam village and belonged to the Devendra Kula Vellalar (classified as Scheduled Caste). She was working at a fancy store on the Keezhradha Veedhi of the Tirunelveli town.

Her stalker was employed by a different vendor in the same location. For the past few months, the 17-year-old had allegedly been telling Sandhiya that he was madly in love with her, but the girl would have none of it.

But the stalker was not to be put off, and he kept pestering her.  Disturbed, the girl confided in her sister Gokila, who was a co-worker. When the proprietor of the shop too came to know of the developments, he apparently took it up with the employer of the stalker. Possibly he had ticked off the boy, asking him to behave, but it had devastating consequences.

When Sandhiya had to go to a godown to pick up some goods for her employer, the 17-year-old followed her and brutally hacked her to death, right in front of her sister and a few others too. 

According to The Hindu, the local police examined the CCTV footage from the scene of the crime and nabbed the 17-year-old from Sathankulam in Thoothukudi. He has since been sent to a juvenile home.

It is to be noted that reports of juveniles involved in heinous crimes in the southern regions of Tamil Nadu regularly crop up in the media. Only on August 9 this year, a 17-year-old Dalit student and his 14-year-old sister were attacked with sickles by six minors in Nanguneri in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district.