Finally got justice… No one should go through our torture

A tribal village remembers the nightmare of June,1992,celebrates justice

Nineteen years after a team of officials from the Tamil Nadu forest,revenue and police departments raided their village of less than 2,000 people in Dharmapuris Harur taluk,raped 18 women and tortured several men,the Malayali tribals of Vachathi waited outside a courtroom on Thursday for their moment of justice.

The entire village was there to witness the verdict at the Dharmapuri sessions court,says K. Vediappan,a social activist associated with the case. Everyone is happy about the verdict but it is also a very emotional moment. The crowd has spilled outside the court campus and the tribals,who have fought for justice for so long,are returning home with a sense of relief, he said.

On June 20,1992,a large team of government officers descended upon the village,perched at the foothills of the Sitheri hills in Tamil Nadu,supposedly to search for smuggled sandalwood. In what is considered one of the worst cases of police excess and abuse of power in the history of Independent India,they raped 18 women,inflicted wounds on dozens of other tribals,ransacked their property and polluted their drinking water sources.

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Said a tearful Maarikkannu,a 38-year-old mother of three who was raped almost two decades ago,We have finally got justice. I hadnt even reached puberty,but the rapists didnt care. No one should have to go through the torture we were subjected to.

Talking to The Indian Express on phone,P Shanmugam,president,Tamil Nadu Tribals Association,who has championed the cause of the Vachathi people,said,There has never been a case like this in the history of the country. The verdict is everything we hoped for. It should serve as a lesson to everyonesuch an incident should never occur again.

Said Harur MLA P Dilli Babu,Its a historic verdict. Two hundred and fifteen government officials have been convicted. We are satisfied with the judgment.

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