Panel begins probe into caste slur case

[1]

Madurai: The National Commi­ssion for SC/ST commenced its enquiry into the incident wherein a dalit child was forced to carry his foot­we­ar on his head by a caste Hindu at Vadu­gapatti, in Madurai district.
Commission director D. Venkatesan and investigation officer Iniyan visited Vadugapatti village in the cast­e-sensitive Usil­am­patti block on Tuesday and held enquiries. Spen­di­ng almost half-a-day in the village, they interacted with the dalits and lent an ear to the caste Hindus for their version of the hu­m­iliation meted out to da­lit boy Arun Kumar (12).
The incident came to light after Nagammal, a single mother, in her complaint said her son Arun Kumar and two other dalit boys had gone to the government high school on June 3 to check the class VI examination results, goi­ng through the locality of caste Hindus.
When the boys were ret­urning, P. Nilamaalai, a caste Hindu youth, irked on seeing Arun walking wi­th footwear, stopped him while letting the other two barefooted boys go. He abused the boy for da­ring to defy the village di­k­tat that dalits should w­a­lk barefoot inside the vi­llage and made deroga­to­ry remarks.
Nilamaalai forced him to carry the slippers on his head until he reached the other end of the village. Fin­ding her son dep­re­s­sed, Nagammal learnt of the incident. Though thr­e­a­tened with dire consequ­e­nces for questioning Nil­a­maalai, she lodged a complaint with the police who later arrested him along with his father Pat­hiv­uraja and brother Agni.