http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Land-grabbing-motive-behind-Dalit-killing/articleshow/6569095.cms
Land grabbing, motive behind Dalit killing
G Arun Kumar, TNN, Sep 17, 2010, 02.48am IST
KHAITHAPURAM (Nalgonda): It was a 20-year-old dispute over a piece of
land, not 'banamati' (black magic), that led to the macabre killing of
Guddeti Yellaiah in this nondescript hamlet of 750 people in
Choutuppal mandal.
Menfolk of upper castes who bore a grudge against the 74-year-old man
for long plotted the sinister killing of Yellaiah down to the last
detail and pushed (read tutored) the women to take the blame even as
they escaped. Contrary to the claims that women had led the frenzied
mob, it was a mob of 40 men who executed the murderous revenge on
Wednesday. Twenty-eight of them have already been identified by
police. Curiously, cases were slapped against 62 women.
Yellaiah was a Dalit whose plot was sandwiched between the plots owned
by two upper caste persons. The frail old man had been refusing to
part with his land and the village heads avenged his defiance by
eliminating him along with another villager, Chiliveru Narsimhaiah,
68. "It was a conspiracy by the powerful village lobby of upper caste
to get rid of my brother," a cousin Jonnaganti Balamani, who works in
a milk chillingcentre in nearby Malkapuram village, said.
When TOI visited the village on Thursday, locks hung on almost every
door and most of the houses which were locked belonged to the accused.
While Yellaiah's old widow Oochamma was being helped to stand on her
weak legs by her relatives, an Anganwadi teacher Bandameedi Shamanta
revealed that the upper caste men wanted to usurp Yellaiah's land.
"They even eyed a small 120 square yards of land close to the village
pond," she said. The victim was a watchman in a cement pipes factory
on a salary of Rs 1,500 and used to make some more money by working in
a stone crushing unit.
Seven years ago, Yellaiah was beaten up on the charges of sorcery. "He
was threatened and forced to accept the charges as we looked on
helplessly. His eyesight was poor. He could not walk properly," a
teary-eyed Lingaswamy, Yellaiah's nephew, recalled. Yellaiah left the
village for a few years and came back once the issue died down. For
the record, the village is dominated by Reddys, Gouds, Yadavs and SCs.
Most of them own lorries, while the Dalits work as farm labourers.
Narsimhaiah, on the other hand, was an old man whose only fault was to
place a small piece of turmeric cloth and two lemons near Pochamma
temple, a practice which is common in all Kali temples. Some villagers
however began to spread rumours that Narsimhaiah was responsible for
the deaths of a youth and a young woman in the last two months. Police
officials however told TOI that 24-year-old K Muthyam, a photographer,
died when he dashed his motorbike into a road divider at Mylaram
village in an inebriated condition on Aug 10.
"Velama Pavani, 21, hanged herself and left a suicide note blaming her
aunt for forcing her into a marriage," Choutuppal CI M Tirupatanna
said.
Narsimhaiah had a herd of eight goats and used to mind his own
business. On Wednesday, he was dragged away from a hillock as he was
tending to his goats and similarly forced by the village heads to
'confess' that Yellaiah and he had indulged in sorcery. He was beaten
up mercilessly. His head was smashed with a boulder. "The village
elders led by Gopu Ilaiah and Manne Lakshma Reddy had conspired to
kill my husband and Yellaiah for no fault of theirs," shouted Yadamma,
sitting in her two-room tin-roofed tenement.
Both Yellaiah and Narsimhaiah were thrown on a woodenpyre in the
graveyard close to the tile-roofed houses and set afire by the mob.
"The barbaric drama started around 10 am and by12.30 pm, they were
burnt to death," a toddy-tapper Bandigadi Jangaiah, whose name figured
in the accused list, said. "The accused flung two worn-out lorry tyres
to ensure that the bodies were burnt beyond recognition," a Clues team
expert said. When police reached around 2 pm, their bodies were
reduced to ashes.
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