It's been almost four weeks since the Kallakurichi district in Tamil Nadu witnessed violent protests following the death of a Class 12 student but the streets still bear the marks of rioting. Every few kilometres, on the road leading to the Sakthi Matriculation School in Kaniyamoor, police contingents are stationed. Police personnel have also been deployed inside the school campus where gutted buses and buildings blackened by smoke stand testimony to the arson and violence. They are quick to chase away onlookers and photographs cannot be taken unless you have a press ID.
There is a tense calm but in villages close by, like Kaniyamoor or Chinnasalem, and even in areas far flung as Marur, there is anger, mistrust and uncertainty. Most of it is directed at the police and the government. In the Kongu belt, where the Gounder community holds large tracts of land and political power, caste fissures have deepened.
One reason behind the resentment against the police is the massive number of arrests that have been made. Among the over 300 people arrested, a majority appear to be Dalit, who allege they have been unfairly targeted. There are families with photographic proof of their wards being elsewhere in the time frame that the riots happened. A family in Gandhi Nagar in Chinnasalem have CCTV footage and exam documents to prove that neither of their sons had been at the protest site. Many others say, their wards were at the spot as onlookers. Regardless, these young men languish in Trichy jail.
In two Dalit colonies, multiple families alleged that the Gounders who own fields and houses in the areas surrounding the school, captured youths in the midst of the chaos when the protests turned violent. “They lured our boys with offers of water and refuge, beat them up and handed them over to the police. Our boys had nothing to do with the violence. They were just bystanders. Isn’t it normal for people to gather in curiosity when something out of the ordinary happens? Is curiosity a crime now?,” asked a woman, whose son was arrested.
Police barricades outside Sakthi Matriculation School
The Agamudiyar community too have been impacted by the arrests made after riots broke out. The Plus Two student, whose death resulted in the riots, hailed from this community. The Agamudiyars come under the Thevar caste cluster, an intermediate caste like the Gounders, who have considerable political clout in other parts of the state. Yet, in Agamudiyar Street in Chinnasalem, a village in the vicinity of the school, residents say that in the initial days after the riots, they were afraid to send male wards in the 18 to 20 age group even on milk runs. Residents allege that the incident brought the community under the police radar.
There is a fear and mistrust of outsiders and preference to stay silent among the community members that TNM spoke to. Even those who were willing to speak wanted to remain anonymous. A resident of Agamudiyar street alleged that on August 11, two older men were picked up by the police in place of their sons, whom the police could not locate. Police also approached several residents with videos asking them to identify people from the locality, they allege.
“People are worried and scared. I wasn’t even in town when the riot happened. But with so many youngsters gone, I’m scared that despite having nothing to do with violence, I may be picked up too,” says a resident.
Agamudiyar Street in Chinnasalem
A mother who did not want to be named told TNM: “When my son leaves home, I ask him to keep his office ID card on him at all times. Things are calmer now, but somewhere the fear is still there inside my heart that what if something goes wrong.”
Marur village is about forty kilometres away from the heart of the protests. In the village’s Dalit colony, members of three families have been unfairly implicated in a case related to rioting, according to their relatives. Vijay, Santhosh and Jayaprakash, aged between 18 and 20, arrested by the police were visiting the 100-ft Murugan temple with their relatives on July 17, the day of the riot. “We had split up on three bikes and gone to the temple 15 kilometres away from the school,” Vijay’s elder sister, Mala, told TNM.
In a photo shared by the families, the three arrested youngsters stand at the far back. Left to right: Vijay, Jayaprakash and Santhosh
Santhosh in front of the 100-foot Murugan idol
According to her, the kids and women were riding with male relatives on two bikes. “The youngsters were together on the third. We left the temple past 3:30pm. We weren’t aware of the riots that had happened a few hours earlier and that Section 144 had been imposed. When the bikes approached the school, Vijay, Santhosh and Jayaprakash were stopped by the police and taken into custody,” says Mala.
They tried showing the police the photos they had taken at the temple. “We told the cops that they were with us the whole time. But they didn’t listen,” says Mala. The police allegedly broke Jayaprakash’s phone and smashed the front of the bike, which was impounded.
“They said they’d let them go in half an hour after the initial investigation, so we waited near the Kallakurichi town police station. But they weren’t released. It took us two days to find out that Vijay, Jayaprakash and Santhosh had been transferred to Trichy jail.” The families allege that the three youngsters were beaten in Kallakurichi police station. “They could barely stand when we went to visit them at the jail.” Jayaprakash’s mother recalls in anger. In the group photo shared with TNM, the time stamp appears to confirm that the three young men were in the temple at 3:49pm on July 17.
In the Dalit colonies of Melapattu and Neerollai, similar stories can be heard. “Our boys were just bystanders. None of this would have happened if the police and the district collector had responded properly to the student’s mother after the death. What were they doing till the protests began?” asks Sujatha, whose son is in Trichy jail.
The road branching to the left leads to the Dalit colony in Melapattu village
Nearly all of the thirteen families TNM spoke to are daily wagers and their lives and earnings have been disrupted by the arrests. In most of these families, the arrested youngsters were working too, in order to pay for their own education. The mother of an arrested youth in Neerollai told TNM that their monthly household income is around Rs 13,000. “It costs Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 for a trip from here to Trichy jail, including buying food for my son. We are allowed three visits a week. That is Rs 3,000 each week. So far we have spent close to Rs 17,000. My son tells me the food in the jail is terrible. It’s only when take him some food, that he eats well.”
In Marur, Vijay had been ‘theru kuthu’ artist (a folk dance form performed primarily by Dalit communities) for eight years at temple festivals. “If he danced all night at the festival, he would earn 500 rupees,” says Valli, a relative. Vijay used to perform at night and then catch a bus to college the next morning.”
Recently, Japarakash got a job at a micro-financing company, his mother tells us. In a copy of the offer letter shared with TNM, he was expected to join the company on July 23, which he would have done had he not been arrested on July 17. “Of course now they are not going to take him back,” his mother says.
Photo of Vijay in his Theru Kuthu attire taken during a performance
Nearer to the school is Gandhi Nagar, Chinnasalem’s Dalit colony, which adjoins Agamudayar street. Here, at the home of Kudiarasu and Sathish, there is a steady stream of visitors – neighbours, journalists and local politicians – after the circumstances of their arrests was reported in The Hindu on August 8. Their parents have CCTV footage of both young men attending TNPSC (Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission) exams in Kallakurichi at the time of the violence. They have the necessary documents too, to prove that their children were not present near the school when the rioting happened.
Mallika, mother of Kudiarasu and Sathish, at their Gandhi Nagar residence, Chinnasalem
On the left: Sathish's chess award
Chess sets owned by Sathish to teach the game to youngsters in his neighbourhood
“When they showed the hall pass, the police tore it up and said, ‘you Gandhi Nagar people talk like this only,” Mallika, their mother, tells TNM. She brings out chess sets belonging to Sathish and many certificates he had received at various chess competitions. “He is so obsessed with the game. He bought all these sets to teach other kids. He is so much in love with the sport and would have gone to the Chess Olympiad in Chennai one way or another. He is sitting in Trichy jail instead,” says Mallika.