‘Police action against atrocities targeting SCs is pathetic’

Former IAS officer P. Sivakami says police action against attacks on SC people in TN "insufficient & pathetic" with 93% accused acquitted. After Nanguneri, Sandhya & Mariappan-Manoj cases, govt. action "pathetic". She urges police to register cases under Prevention of Atrocities Act & for CM to review police functioning. She will soon bring out report on SC atrocities in TN.

Police action taken against those who unleashed attacks on Scheduled Caste people in Tamil Nadu is “insufficient and pathetic” and hence 93% of the accused in such cases get acquitted with the prosecution failing to prove the charges, P. Sivakami, former IAS officer and founder of Samooga Samaththuva Padai, has said.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, she said after the Nanguneri incident, in which two teens were hacked by three schoolboys, Sandhya of Karisalkulam was murdered by ‘dominant caste’ youth and Mariappan and Manoj Kumar of Manimurtheeswaram became victims of caste-based attack. The action taken by the State government after these attacks on SC people was “pathetic”.

Only after collecting ₹1.92 lakh, a house was given to the family of the Nanguneri children, which could have been given free under the ‘Special Component Scheme,’ she said.

Ms. Sivagami alleged that the flow of water from Nanguneri Periyakulam to ‘Chinnakulam’, supplying water for irrigation to 200 acres belonging to the SC people, had been blocked by the members of a ‘dominant caste’, who had built their houses across the watercourse. The official machinery should have taken steps to ensure supply of water from Nanguneri Periyakulam to Chinnnakulam to guarantee continued farming operations by the SC farmers.

She also alleged that Esakkimuthu of Erumbi Colony in Radhapuram, a temporary worker of Tangedco, who was electrocuted while attending a fault in an electric pole, was also “murdered” by the members of a ‘dominant caste’ due to enmity, and urged the police to register a case under the Prevention of Atrocities Act.

“The family of Esakkimuthu should have been given ₹1 crore as compensation as he was electrocuted while discharging his duty. Police action in Tirunelveli district to check the attacks on SC people is inadequate. The Tamil Nadu police are diluting the cases registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act with the accused convicted only in 7% cases,” Ms. Sivagami said.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin should convene an annual meeting to examine the outcome of the cases registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. “The meeting should review if the accused are actually convicted or acquitted so that the CM himself will come to know about the functioning of the police,” she said.