Lok Sabha polls | With no progress in case after over a year, Vengaivayal Dalit residents say they will boycott election

Dalit residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai threaten to boycott Lok Sabha elections due to lack of justice.

Dalit residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha elections, citing the failure of the police to arrest the culprits involved in the mixing human faeces in the overhead drinking water tank at the village in December 2022.

The CB-CID has been investigating the incident in the village, located in the Muttukkadu panchayat, on December 26 2022. But no breakthrough has been achieved so far. In the absence of direct evidence or witnesses, the CB-CID has been trying to find scientific evidence and has been conducting DNA tests and voice analysis of some of the suspects in the case.

On Monday the Dalit residents of Vengaivayal put up banners announcing their decision to boycott the polls, at two places in the village. The village has about 30 families from the Dalit community.

“It is going to be two years since the incident took place, but we haven’t got justice as yet. Politicians knock on our doors only during election time. Only for a brief time after the incident took place, did our issue became a sensation. People here have been mentally traumatised,” said M. Sindhuja, a Dalit resident, while speaking to The Hindu.

“We could not even travel by bus to another village to attend a function as the police suspected that we may be going to a protest somewhere. Our relatives are unable to enter the village as strict police scrutiny continues. To hold a function, we have to get permission from the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and Superintendent of Police (SP). We are boycotting this Lok Sabha election as we don’t have any other option left,” she added.

K.R. Murugan another resident said, “With constant police presence in our village it feels like an open prison. There should be an end to all of this.”

“Since we are very few in number, we believe no one wants to take up our issue as it would not benefit their vote politics,” he added.