A love affair, violence and fight for justice
Violent caste-based abduction in Morappur sparks outrage and calls for justice and protection for inter-caste couples
The house in Keezhmorappur in Harur which was vandalised last week.
| Photo Credit: N. BASHKARAN
A one-man police picket stood guard outside the 350 sq.ft house of Selvam in Keezhmorappur village in Parayapatti post in Morappur on Monday. Five days ago, this place was vandalised and Selvam and his wife Kannammal (name changed) were beaten, and the latter abducted and harassed in captivity.
Selvam’s son Surendran is believed to have eloped with his childhood friend from school. The fact that the couple were qualified Agriculture graduates, aged 24 and 23 respectively, and that Surendran was gainfully employed in Coimbatore made no difference to the girl’s parents.
The girl belongs to the dominant Kongu Vellalar Gounder caste, while Surendran belongs to the Kuravan community – Scheduled Caste in some districts and Scheduled Tribe in many others.
On the morning of August 14, a group of 15 to 20 men, including the girl’s parents Boopathy and his wife Selvi from the neighbouring Ganapathipatti village landed at the house of Selvam, beat him up asking for the whereabouts of their daughter and Selvam’s son. Kannammal, who was securing her two cows from a nearby brick kiln, rushed to protect her husband from the blows being landed on him. “I ran, when I saw them dragging him to a bike. I threw myself in front of the bike in a bid to stop them from taking away my husband. The girl’s mother started yelling that I would know where they have gone,” said Kannammal.
When Selvam’s aged mother tried to intervene, they slapped her and she collapsed unconscious. “I knew I could not take those blows. So, I ran inside here, and tried to latch the door. But the girl’s mother along with the other men opened it and I was dragged outside,” she added.
An asthma patient, she seemed unwell, and was consumed by fear for her son’s life.
On August 14, when the urban women across country were fighting against sexual violence, elsewhere in a little village, Selvam’s wife was beaten, her blouse torn, and forcibly put on a two-wheeler between two men, and abducted to a nearby forest. She was in captivity for an entire day and returned at 11 p.m. that night. “They dropped me on a road and two men on a bike waiting outside the forest told the others to go away. Soon, a police vehicle came and picked me up,” she said.
The girl’s father was there all along during the captivity. “One man stripped my saree and I sat there in my blouse and petticoat the whole day. They kept asking for my son’s whereabouts and I repeated I don’t know. When it got dark, they lit a fire, ate and drank and even offered me food and tried to force alcohol into my mouth, which I refused.
“One man narrated the killing of a girl in Ganapathipatty, who fell in love with a colony boy (SC boy). He said she was poisoned, and thrown into a well, and then he burnt the body. ‘No matter how many years later they return, they will face the same fate,’ he threatened. I want my son safe,” she said tears rolling her cheeks.
Deputy Superintendent of Police of Harur, Jaganathan said Kannammal was found at 9 p.m. and admitted to the GH. “We kept tracking phone numbers till then to trace her,” he said. Sections 3(1) (r), 3 (1)(5), 3(2) (vA) of Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and various sections of the BNS had been invoked in this regard.
Harur’s landed elite, the affluent Kongu Vellalar Gounders, are on a mission to regroup and reinvent their caste pride.
Aadhavan Deetchanya, the writer and general secretary of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers’ Association, says: “A fortnight ago, the wife of Yuvaraj, who was convicted in the ‘honour’ killing of Gokul Raj was among the special invitees to the Dheeran Chinnamalai jayanthi orgainised by the Harur Kongu Vellala Gounder Association. Banners of Yuvaraj and also that of his wife found a pride of place on the highway outside the Kongu Vellala Gounder Kalyana mandapam, where the statue of Dheeran Chinnamalai is erected.”
A reinvention of caste pride is also seen in ‘Valli Kummi Aatam’ where the community’s young girls convene from different parts of the region in Harur to perform the dance form identifying with a revivalist cultural project, says Mr. Deetchanya.
On Sunday, the main accused, Boopathy, was arrested. “He is illiterate and strongly believes in caste pride,” said the DSP, adding that the couple had to be produced to close the missing complaint case filed by the parents. “They are majors, have a legal and constitutional right to marry and we only want the girl’s statement to close the case. We will give them protection and help them marry,” said Mr. Jaganathan.
In all this, Surendran’s parents want the police to remove the name of the brother of the girl, who was not present during the attack, but was named by mistake. “He is also like our son, studying in college. She will eventually be our daughter-in-law and that is her brother. Why should a young life be ruined,” says the mother.
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