Two SC men stripped, urinated on and robbed in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli

The police said even though the young men told the gang they did not have any money, they were attacked. The men then called a relative and asked them to transfer Rs 5,000 via digital payment to the gang. However, the gang did not let them go and questioned the men about their caste and background.

When the young men told them that they belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, the gang of men from a dominant caste beat them up and later made them strip and passed urine on them.

While speaking to the local media, the victims alleged that the gang had also taken away their phones and robbed their jewellery as they kept them in confinement until 1 am.

They escaped and shared their ordeal with their family after reaching their homes. Later, they were later admitted to the Tirunelveli Government Hospital.

Based on the complaint by the victims, the Thachanallur police registered a complaint.

On Tuesday, the police arrested six people including Ponmani (25), Nallamuthu (21), Aayiram (19), Ramar (22), Siva (22), and Lakshmanan (20) all belonging to nearby towns. They were booked under sections of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for robbery.

Sriperumbudur MLA and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s legislature party leader K Selvaperunthagai issued a statement condemning the incident and urged the government to initiate stringent action against the offenders.

The Congress leader added the government should take measures towards conducting an awareness camp for the prevention of caste atrocities across the districts.

In August, a 17-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister, who hail from a SC community were attacked by a group of students of dominant castes with sickles in Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district.

Chidambaram MP and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi Thol Thirumavalvan who visited the victims at the hospital had then urged the state government to form a separate intelligence unit to prevent crimes related to caste and religion.

Following the incident, Chief Minister M K Stalin constituted a one-man committee led by Justice K Chandru to provide constructive guidance on measures needed to be implemented to eliminate caste and racial differences among students.