Hamlet smouldering with AIDS scare

As many as 33 people have so far been taken into custody, among them TMC Poonamallee Town Panchayat Ward Councillor P Tikkaram. Devan, the husband of DMK Councillor Mallika, who is said to have tied the victim to the tree is absconding ever since is. A little way down the by-pass, a posse of policemen resting in shade at the Poonamallee-Chenneerkuppam junction eye all approaching vehicles with suspicion. But the victim of Sunday’s frenzy is yet to be identified.

Even as the goriness of Sunday’s incident slowly sinks in the collective psyche of Chenneerkuppam, a few try to pass the buck andblame the police. “It was the inefficiency of the police that has led to the incident,” said Armugham Mudaliar (45), a local. “Something like this was waiting to happen. Had the police come to the site with enough strength, the ghastly death could have been prevented,” he added. Armugham has reason enough to be vociferous. He was one of the several people who were rounded up (and later let off) by the police on Sunday, immediately after the incident. The police, however, agree that they were no match against a 300-strong crowd. But they also give several reasons in their defence. Says a police officer attached to the Poonamallee police station, from where a Sub-Inspector and three constables had rushed to the site.

The four-member police party was at first taken aback by the sheer strength of the mob. Initially, the crowd was willing to hand the man over to the police. But when someone suggested that the police may let him off on the way or later at the station, the mob turned hostile. A few youthsshouted abuses at the SI and asked the police party to go back. But the SI stood his ground and even pleaded with the crowd to let him take the bleeding man to hospital. When a constable to prevent the mob from dousing diesel on the man before setting him ablaze, some poured the fuel on the constable, too, and threatened to kill him.

But what remain unexplained is the mystery about who the man was and why he was so brutally beaten and burnt, and whether he was really on an `AIDS-spreading spree’. The police say they would like to call the death the “dangerous result of a vicious rumour”. But villagers are not buying this.

Not possible: experts

Medical experts working in the field of AIDS control and awareness have ruled out the possibility of infection through syringes containing an AIDS-victim’s blood. “It is just not possible,” Dr Vimala Ramalingam, Joint Director, AIDS Control Society, told The Indian Express. The possibility of infection through syringes filled with anAIDS-victim’s blood is nil. The transmission of the HIV-positive virus, known to cause AIDS, is ruled out as the virus in the blood would die when exposed to unfavourable conditions. “At least 100 ml of blood is required for the virus to survive and spread infection, even then blood is known to clot when exposed. And clotted blood definitely does not have healthy virus,” she said.