Butchery Of Dalits In Paramakudi
By Dr Anand Teltumbde
12 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org
(A Press Note for the Press Meet on 4 October 2011 at Chennai Press Club)
The news of police firing on Dalits, congregated at Paramakudi to
observe the 54 th anniversary of the martyrdom of their leader
Emmanuel Sekaran, killing six of them and injuring scores of them,
just within four months from Ms J Jayalalitha regaining her power,
shocked the entire nation. The Tamilnadu based Centre for Protection
of Civil Liberties took an initiative to constitute an all India team
to do the fact finding into the incident. Accordingly a team
comprising Priyadarshini of Democratic Students Union, New Delhi;
Lakshmi Prasanna of Caste Annihilation Liberation Front; Advocates
Murugan and Kesavan and S. Gopal of Centre for Protection of Civil
Liberties, and Dr Anand Teltumbde of Committee for Protection of
Democratic Rights, Mumbai visited Paramakudi, Manjoor,
Keelakodumbaloor, Sadayaneeri, and Veerambal; Patam, Puliyur,
Chintamani Junction; Apollo hospital in Madurai; met with eye
witnesses, victims' families, injured persons and state
authorities—district collectors of Ramnad and Madurai districts; RDO
and Tehsildar, Paramakudi over the two days, i.e., 2 nd and 3 rd
October 2011. Taking stock of all the facts, the committee has come to
a conclusion that the police action was not only unprovoked but was
rather preplanned to serve the larger political interests of the
ruling party.
The facts of the case are simple enough. Since there are a couple of
good videos available of the entire episode, they could be even
treated as incontrovertible. Despite this the incident is largely
projected in the media as per the police version. In the morning of 11
th September people began gathering at Paramakudi like previous years.
The administration had taken usual steps to divert traffic from
Madurai to Ramnad through the bypass road. The festive mood of the
gathering that was swelling with time at the Five Cross Road at
Paramakudi junction was usual. Everything was usual as in previous
years but for the crowd that has been growing over the last 50 odd
years and the disproportionately big police posse with all its
paraphernalia. There was nothing untoward until suddenly police burst
into action at around 11.30 am with lathi charge, pushing people
towards Mudukullatur road. The people had retreated but were still
chased by the police, which enraged people and began throwing stones
at police. Suddenly anti-riot armored vehicle –Vajra, was brought in
and police began firing on the crowd. All the people who died of gun
shots and injured in firing were hit far above the waist. The
situation seemingly was brought under control within an hour or so. By
then four people had been killed and several injured. Police did not
take care of the dead or wounded. Many people who survived said they
were carried by their friends to the hospital.
Surprisingly in the evening after 3 pm, the police again went berserk
picking up people randomly from the junction up to the railway
crossing, which is half a kilometer away from the scene. They picked
up some 18 youth, brought them to the police van and beat so brutally
that two people died there itself. Others were beaten in the van as
well as Ilayangudi police station to have multiple fractures and
broken skulls. Most were left at Ilayangudi Government Hospital where
they remained untreated before they were taken to other hospitals
after hours. Many injured in earlier lathi charge and bullet injuries
were carried by their friends and acquaintances and did not figure in
any records.
At Madurai, there was not any iota of an excuse for the police to use
weapon but still they fired upon people grievously injuring two
students. The people of Puliyur had started in an open lorry basically
because the buses they paid advance to had backed out reportedly at
the instance of the police. They were stopped at the Chintamani
junction, barely two kilometers away from the village. The altercation
ensued. In meanwhile a Tata Sumo carrying the people of Patam village
followed but it was also stopped for no reason. Soon there arrived
Gajendran, a police inspector and as he came out of his jeep he fired
at the crowd with his service revolver felling two boys instantly, one
who came in the Tata Sumo and other who had followed on his bike. It
is sheer luck that the latter survived as the bullet had passed
through almost touching his spine piercing through his lungs and then
though his right arm. In order to justify the police action, the eye
witnesses told us that the police had broken the windowpanes of some
of the vehicles standing there and slapped ridiculous cases on two
boys of molesting a lady constable, incidentally belonging to a Dalit
caste.
The police version that the mob turned violent falls flat in the face
of facts. As a face saving device, the government announced a judicial
investigation by a retired single judge Mr Sampath, who however was
greeted by black flags by the people. It however served the purpose to
evade questions for the administration. While the collector, Ramnad
reeled off the police version, the collector, Madurai admitted that he
was not even informed of the firing incident by the police and assured
to look into it. The brutality with which the police acted showed that
the entire episode was preplanned to curb the Dalit assertion under
the guise of the guru pooja. The statement of the chief minister that
it was a clash between two communities is ominous and smacks of the
state plan to polarize people. It is to the credit and wisdom of the
people that they have not succumbed to this intrigue.
We summarize our observations as follows:
· There was no justification whatsoever for the police action both at
Paramakudi as well as Madurai. Both the actions were illegal, and
display of police highhandedness.
· Whatever agitation that the administration and media speaks of was
the consequence and not the cause of the police action.
· It is an open fact that the Thevar community wanted to stop the
Dalits' guru pooja assuming the same stature as theirs and apparently
the incident supported their plan.
· The administration had mobilized huge police force with an excuse of
a murder of a student that took place in Palla-Pachery village (about
30 kms from Paramakudi) on 9 th September. In the context of the
history of such murders every year, this was also not an uncommon
occurrence.
· The police blatantly violated their own Manual not following the
procedures for opening fire. There was not only no warning before the
fire, they fired to kill.
· The brutal manner in which the police behaved in the evening of 11
th September will shame humanity anywhere. They had simply beaten
people to death.
· To cap it all, the Police have raided many villages unnecessarily
and arrested over 500 people, who are still languishing in jails.
Demands
· The state police has completely lost moral right to investigate into
this case and hence the case be handed over to the CBI for
investigation.
· The police responsible for the criminal act of killing and beating
innocent people should be charged under the Atrocity Act as well as
for the murder under IPC. Some names that prominently figure are: M/s
Senthilvelan (DCP), Sandip Mittal (IG), Elangovan (DSP), Siva kumar
(PI), Gajendran (PI), Shanmuganathan (SI)
· Pending investigation, the above and other officials involved in the
process of granting permission for fire (such as Siva Kumar,
Tehsildar, Paramakudi ) should be summarily suspended.
· All the arrested people should be released forthwith.
· All the false cases foisted on people in this episode should be dropped.
· The relief of Rs 1 lakh announced by the government to the deceased
is ridiculous. Since the state has killed or maimed people for no
reason, the state should compensate the families for the loss of
potential earning of the dead. It should buy them annuities worth
minimum Rs 5000 per month for 40 years.
· All injured people should be given Rs 1 lakh as compensation besides
the reimbursement of their medical expenses.
· The coming state sponsored Thevar jayanthi is surely to repeat
police atrocities on Dalits. The government should ensure that Dalits
are not harassed.
· The government support to certain community's 'guru pooja' is at the
root of this and other such problems. It is unbecoming of a secular
state to do so. We condemn the state behavior and demand it withdraws
from such indulgence.
Dr Anand Teltumbde is a writer, political analyst and civil rights
activist with Committee for Protection of Democractic Rights, Mumbai
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