Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 01.04.14
Tirupattur Tense as Dalit Hacked to Death in Full Public View- The New Indian Express
Cleaning firm owner booked as another manual scavenger dies- The Indian Express
Woman attacked by upper caste men for questioning their atrocities- The Times Of India
HC allows plea of Dalit woman on caste certificate- Business Standard
Note: Please find attachment for HINDI DMW ( PDF)
The New Indian Express
Tirupattur Tense as Dalit Hacked to Death in Full Public View
A day after a 24-year-old Dalit youth was hacked to death in full public view in Tirupattur Town, police arrested a notorious rowdy and his associate in connection with the case on Sunday. The brutal murder of the youth sparked off a stir, creating tension in the town.
Police personnel have been deployed in and around the town to maintain law and order, after the angry relatives and neighbours of Arun Kumar of Jai Beam Nagar ransacked the murderer Rajan’s house in Avai Nagar on Sunday evening. They set ablaze to his house and mini-van. However, fire service personnel reached the spot and put out the fire.
The brutal murder took place around 4 pm on Sunday at Avai Nagar Junction in the town. “It was a pre-planned murder,” said investigation officer and inspector of Tirupattur Taluk station, S Sethupathy.
Rajan, aged about 28, was waiting at Avai Nagar Junction along with his associate Mani of Thaiyappan Nagar, and stopped Arun, who was on his way to Avai Nagar by bike. They attacked him with a sickle. Although Arun tried to escape, Rajan and Mani chased him down and hacked him on his legs, head and chest, killing him instantly.
The murder took place in full public view. The petrified onlookers ran away from the spot after witnessing the gory murder. Police arrested Rajan and Mani.
“A community issue is suspected to be the motive behind the murder. Rajan, a Caste Hindu, was opposed to the marriage of his relative’s daughter to Arun, a year ago,” said a police officer privy to the interrogation of Rajan.
Arun was in love with 19-year-old Geetha (name changed), and they got married a year ago against the wishes of her family. Arun sent Geetha back to her parent’s house a couple of months ago due to the growing discord between them.
To settle a score for marrying the girl and spoiling her life, Rajan murdered Arun, added police.
Police registered a case against the duo under Section 341 (punishment for wrongful restrain) and 302 (murder) of IPC read with 3 (2) (V) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tirupattur, A Sujatha, however, said they were yet to establish the motive behind the murder.
“Investigation is going on and we hope to solve the case within a day,” said the DSP.
The Indian Express
Cleaning firm owner booked as another manual scavenger dies
Yet another manual scavenger died in hospital on Monday, after suffering from asphyxiation while cleaning a drainage line in Unjha town of Mehsana district on Sunday.
With this, the total number of deaths in the incident has climbed to three. Two had died on Sunday.
Unjha police have registered an FIR under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the proprietor of P C Snehal Construction Company Private Limited that had employed the workers to clean the drains, without providing them with adequate safety equipment, and Ranchhod Kakadiya from Ahmedabad, who is the project manager of the company, responsible for the company’s affairs in Unjha. The accused have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
A complaint in this regard has been lodged by one Vijay Solanki from Palanpur, who was accompanying the deceased when they entered the drainage line and suffocated.
The third manual scavenger who died in hospital on Monday morning, has been identified as Anil Kunvariya (25) from Palanpur.
Two Dalit boys, in their early 20s, asphyxiated to death in Unjha on Sunday morning, after they entered a drainage line for cleaning without proper safety equipment. While the two boys, Haresh Kumariya (24) and Anil Chauhan (27), died on the spot, Kunvariya was shifted to a hospital in critical condition, who died on Monday morning.
DSP K S Savani, who is investigating the case, said they have started an investigation into who had instructed the trio to enter the drainage line. “The construction company told us that their ‘contract had expired on March 31 last year and that they were responsible only for the maintenance of the drainage network. They also said that under the rules, nobody is suppose to enter the drainage line manually’. So, we are trying to find out under whose instructions the labourers entered the drainage line,” Savani added.
The Times Of India
Woman attacked by upper caste men for questioning their atrocities
MADURAI: A middle-aged woman belonging to the paliyar tribe was allegedly attacked in Theni district recently by the dominant caste Hindus, when she questioned their atrocities against her community people. The attack has brought to light decades of exploitation by the upper caste people on the innocent paliyar tribe.
R Malliga, like many of the tribal people does not know even her age. She was attacked in broad daylight at a bus stand in Periyakulam. She was attacked to force her to pay a debt, her family owed for lease amount of the caste Hindu's land. Malliga said that they never received cash and were actually trapped into debt by the caste Hindus to exploit their labour.
S Thanaraj, a Madurai-based tribal activist attached with Ekta Parishad, an NGO said that the usually shy paliyar tribe, habitat of hilly forests used to keep themselves away from others, until a decade ago. They are nomadic by nature and would shift their place in search of forest produce. Most of them do not even have voters' identity cards. But, after the forest lands were encroached upon by people from the plains, they were forced to mingle with them. They slowly started to work in their lands and soon the exploitation started, Thangaraj said.
The case of Malliga is just a tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of families spread over Palani hills in Dindigul district, Varusanadu hills and hills in Bodi and Periyakulam in Theni districts are exploited by the upper castes, according to Malliga, who boldly fought against the upper castes for almost a week to force the police to book the caste Hindus under the SC/ST Act. A case against the upper caste has been registered and being investigated upon. There was a counter complaint from the caste Hindus against the paliyar people of attacking them. But it seems the complaint is a false one, said R Sethu, deputy superintendent of police, Periyakulam range.
The livelihood of paliyars conventionally depended on forest produce like honey, medicinal plants. Later, they started relying on silk cotton, lemon and coffee grown in forest lands belonging to caste Hindus. The upper castes would lure and provide the paliyars their land for lease. Since they would not have money they have to harvest and sell the produce to none other than the landlords and settle the amount.
Since the tribal people do not have any idea about the money value, land and their produce, the landlords would fix the lease amount and price for the produce. At the end of lease the easily gullible paliyars would have earned nothing. However, they would be forced by cough up money as the caste Hindus would show some accounts that there is mismatch between the money lent and the produce they received. They would be tortured to pay or would be forced to work in their land as bonded labourers until they pay the rest, claimed Thanraj.
Business Standard
HC allows plea of Dalit woman on caste certificate
Madras High Court has pulled up Karaikal revenue departmentofficials for rejecting the application of a Dalit woman for community certificate to her children without holding a full-fledged enquiry.
Passing a rejection order without conducting a detailed enquiry in regard to the issuance of a Caste Certificate itself is a ground to set aside the rejection order passed by the authority concerned, the court held.
Allowing the petition of minor Amarnath represented by his mother S Usha Rani, a division bench comprising Justice M.Jaichandren and Justice M.Venugopal directed Karaikal Tahsildar to conduct a detailed enquiry on receipt of a fresh application and pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with law within a period of 12 weeks.
The tahsildar in his December 26, 2011 order had stated that since the woman was living in Puducherry for the past six years, it was unable to ascertain what religion she and her family members were following.
The woman submitted that she belonged to a Scheduled Caste and had married a Christian, who later converted to Hindu religion. Since her husband's family did not accept their marriage, they were residing with her parents in Karikal till six years ago when they moved to Puducherry.
The court held that the rejection order on the ground cited "bristles with legal infirmities and suffers from material irregularities in the eye of Law" and directed her to submit a fresh application.
News Monitor by Girish Pant
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
..............................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
..............................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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