December is the follow-up month at TNM where we go back to headlines of the past for a status update. In this series, we strive to bring focus back to promises made by governments, revisit official investigations that should have been completed by now and exhume issues of public interest that lost steam over time.
It has been more than four months since riots broke out outside the Sakthi Matriculation School in Kallakurichi district’s Kaniyamoor. The death of a Class 12 student on the school premises set off protests that took a violent turn on July 17, leading to extensive damage to school property and police vehicles. But many who were arrested, predominantly youth from Dalit communties, had little to do with the vandalism, according to their family members.
Brothers Vasanth and Kudiarasu, who were writing their Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) exams at the time the school was vandalised, say their futures have become uncertain ever since they were arrested on charges of rioting. “If the police had just listened to us for five minutes, or even for two, to what were saying, our lives wouldn't have become a question mark,” says Kudiyarasu, the elder sibling. Despite showing their hall passes, Kudiyarasu and Vasanth were arrested while passing by the school campus on the way to their Chinnasalem home and lodged in Trichy Central Jail.
The school is situated on the Kallkurichi highway and the brothers have to pass by the school in order to reach their house in Gandhi Nagar, a Dalit colony. “Most of the men who were with us in Trichy jail were Dalits. When the FIR was being written, they would have known from the name of the neighbourhood we live in that we are Dalits too,” says Kudiarasu.
A week after the violence, TNM had hit the ground in Kallakurichi, meeting families of the arrested youths. As Kudiarasu says, many came from Dalit colonies both near the school and even from villages 40 kilometres away such as Marur. According to their family members, the arrested youngsters were either on-lookers or happened to be passing by when the incident happened.
Kudiyarasu is convinced he and his brother would have scored well, if they had the chance to appear for all TNPSC examinations. But they were in jail and could manage to obtain bails only a month later. “After we came out, I asked my friends for copies of the exam papers. They told me that they had found the maths and english papers difficult, but when I looked through it, I found it quite easy. Had we been able to take all our exams, I’m positive both of us would have done well and got postings,” says Kudiyarasu.
The brothers are first-generation graduates. Kudiyarasu has a Bachelors in Education (BEd) and Vasanth is a mechanical engineer. They have a family income of Rs 40,000. “We end up having less than half the amount in hand. We were already paying Rs 18,000 for loans and then my parents had to take a second emergency loan from moneylenders to pay our bail amounts. We now have an additional Rs 5,000 to pay off every month.” The terms of their conditional bail was sureties of Rs 10,000 each, planting 10 saplings in a public place and signing a register at the Kallakurichi police station twice a day. The expense of having to travel to Kallakurichi twice a day is Rs 80, which adds up to Rs 2,400 a month. “I have stopped asking my parents for any money. My brother and I had been hoping to reduce their financial burden by securing good jobs, but now I don’t want to add to it in any way,” says Kudiyarasu.
The young graduate says the mental torment they experienced has made it impossible for him to concentrate on studies. There are upcoming public service exams he wants to sit for, but the pressure of the case against him is distracting. “I open my book, stare at the pages for a few hours and close it again. Both of us are at the Chinnasalem railway station most of the time. There’s a study group that’s been meeting there for years. Students find it helpful to sit together and learn from each other. I used to help others, but now I can’t study.”
Many of the arrested youngsters whom TNM reached out to, shared their experiences, but were reluctant to have them published, worrying that it would impact their case. At the time of their arrests, Kudiyarasu and Vasanth’s parents furbished CCTV footage from their exam centres, proving that their sons were nowhere near the protest site when the violence broke out. They have been speaking to the media, to anyone who will listen, hoping to prove their sons’ innocence.
Speaking to TNM, advocate Vetri Nilavan, who helped secure bail for ten youths, says the Kallakurichi arrests will remain a blot on Chief Minister MK Stalin, the way firing in Thoothukudi firing impacted the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). “Many of these youths and their families voted for the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) hoping for change, even now they are hoping that the state government will take cognisance of their situation,” says Vetri Nilavan.
Around 450 youths were arrested in the days after the violence and out of them nearly 350 have got conditional bail so far, but like Kudiyrasu and Vasanth, these young men, primarily in the age group of 18 to 33, are unable to return to their studies or jobs. The advocate also says that chargesheets have not been filed in many cases even though the mandated 180 days have passed.
“A majority of those arrested had nothing to do with the violence. Those who actually took part in the vandalism left the area by the time police took control of the situation,” says Vetri Nilavan.
According to him, there have been other procedural lapses and instances of police brutality. In a remand order issued by the Kallakurichi magisterial court, seen by TNM, the judge notes injuries sustained by some of the 108 persons brought before him on July 18. In the order the judge observes that injuries on four of the accused were caused by ‘villagers’. Three others were injured following physical assault by the police.
When TNM had visited Kallakurichi in August, in two Dalit colonies, multiple families alleged that the Gounders (Other Backward Class) 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.
Vetri Nilavan also alleges that a minor youth was treated as an adult and arrested. “Police claimed that he was 19 years old and lodged him in Cuddalore jail, but he was only 17.” The advocate had filed a petition under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 at the Kallkurichi magisterial court, along with the boy’s tenth standard mark sheet and school transfer certificate, to prove his age. The boy wrongfully arrested on July 17 was released on July 27 following the court’s order.