Alleging that police inaction led to the murder of a Dalit couple in Kodumudi on November 14, the Dalit Liberation Movement – Tamil Nadu has urged the Director General of Police to register a case against the personnel at the Kodumudi police station.
In a petition sent to the DGP, Chennai, the movement’s State general secretary S. Karuppiah said that S. Ramasamy (58) of Chitta Pulla Palayam Colony in Kodumudi and his wife R. Arukani (56) were murdered in the early hours of November 14 by some men belonging to another community.
The petition said that Ramasamy’s daughter Menaka and her husband Perumal had come to the village to celebrate Deepavali when a seven-member gang, led by one Surya, harassed her at 9.30 p.m. on November 13. The couple suffered injuries after they were attacked by the gang. Menaka’s father questioned Surya, and left home.
Menaka and Perumal went to the government hospital for treatment and the police were alerted about the incident. But the police, instead of initiating action against Surya and others, pacified them and let them go, the petition alleged. At 1.30 a.m. on November 14, the elderly couple was murdered.
“If the police had taken action and arrested the gang, the murders would not have taken place,” the petitioner said and demanded action against the Inspector of Police, Sub-Inspector and personnel on duty at the station. “Case should be registered under Section 4 (neglect of duties) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989”, the petitioner said.
