A caste Hindu man who hurled caste slurs and allegedly forced a Dalit staff at Otterpalayam Annur village administrative office to prostate in front of him on August 7 has been booked in two cases including the provisions of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act by the Coimbatore police on August 8.

After the video of a Dalit man in tears prostrating in front of a caste Hindu man went viral on social media, the Coimbatore district collector GS Sameeran demanded a detailed report on the incident, followed by which a committee headed by District Revenue Officer (DRO) Leela Alex held an inquiry. District Superintendent of police Selva Nagaratnam held a thorough investigation regarding the incident for over two hours at Annur police station.

Subsequently, as per the complaint by Village Administrative Officer Kalaiselvi, the accused Gopinathan (38) has been booked under Sections 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) of IPC and another case had been booked under various sections of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act as per the complaint by P Muthusamy (56).

According to reports, on August 7, Gopinathan employed as a marriage broker visited the VAO office for procuring a land patta at 11 am. As the VAO asked Gopinathan to bring required documents to process the document, Gopinathan allegedly got into a verbal spat with the woman officer.

Upon seeing this, helper Muthusamy intervened in the situation and urged Gopinathan to bring the necessary documents and also to behave decently with the woman officer. Angered by this, Gopinathan who belongs to the Gounder community is said to have hurled caste slurs at Muthusamy, who belongs to Dalit community.