Madras High Court to deliver its verdict on appeal petitions in the Vachathi State violence case on September 29

In Dharmapuri, a little-known tribal hamlet, 18 young girls were brutally victimised by a contingent of forest, revenue, and police personnel in 1992. The Madras High Court is set to deliver its verdict on the appeal petitions of the 269 accused personnel, including 17 convicted of rape. Survivors recall the horrors of the raid, while the Communist movement comrades stood with the victims in their fight for justice. The verdict may bring closure to the long-standing case.

Paranthayi’s toothless slur fumbles, but her memory holds steady, revisiting the horrors of those fateful days of June 20 and its immediate aftermath in 1992, when a little known tribal hamlet of Vachathi in Dharmapuri was forced into the registry of the country’s chequered history of State violence.

This village of ‘Malayali’ (hill) tribes was besieged by a contingent of forest, revenue, and police personnel, in what was an ostensible raid against sandalwood logging, an accusation denied by the landless inhabitants. But, what followed was a three-day rampage that led to the brutalisation of 18 young girls, some of them children; destruction of homes; pillaging of livestock; and beaten bodies, according to the testimonies after the Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI) took over the investigation of the case.

On Friday, when the Madras High Court delivers its verdict on appeal petitions, it would be exactly 12 years to date from the last verdict on September 29, 2011, by a sessions court, which convicted all 269 accused personnel. Among them, 17 were also convicted on the charge of rape. The surviving 217 officials were sentenced to jail for impunity of State violence.

Among the convicts on appeal is an Assistant Conservator of Forests, Conservator of Forests, and District Forest Officer, who led the raid. The first accused was the Principal Conservator of Forests (PCCF), who sent a letter with directions for the evidence to be destroyed.

Ms. Paranthayi along with her neighbour Ramayi may perhaps be the oldest surviving members, who still quiver with tears when informed of the impending judgment. The court verdict in itself seemed insignificant to them, but the haunting memories weren’t.

Her daughter had come back home with a sack of mangoes picked from the grove that afternoon. She along with 17 other young women were gathered and dragged to be brutalised. “They rounded up young girls and took them up there and brutalised them,” says Ms. Paranthyi, looking into at some foothills in the distance.

The women and children were taken in vehicles to Harur forest office, where they were beaten before being thrown into the Salem jail for three months. “I couldn’t get myself to eat in jail,” says Ms. Ramayi. She points to Ms. Paranthayi and recollects how she was asked to jump up and down with internal bruises to loosen the blood clots from the beatings by the Forest Department. Putrid memories of victimhood and its humiliation still hung like a shadow over the few seniors, who were available to talk on Thursday afternoon of the collective punishment.