In Puducherry, a Dalit student studying in class 5 was brutally murdered after being raped just 200 meters away from her house, people took to the streets.
Posted on by Dalit Times
Sudha Sundararaman, national vice-president of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), says the horrific nature of the crime and speculations of both the accused taking drugs have now paved the way for a massive anti-alcohol and anti-drug campaign in the Union Territory Is. Shaken by the horrific nature of the crime, residents of the Union Territory (UT) soon took to the streets in large numbers demanding the culprits be hanged or shot dead.
PUDUCHERRY RAPE CASE: In Puducherry, a 9-year-old Dalit girl was brutally murdered after being raped just 200 meters from her house. This incident created a stir in Puducherry. Residents have alleged that when the girl went missing, the police had asked to increase the scope of the search but no attention was paid to it, due to which such a serious incident took place. After the girl went missing on March 2, residents and police searched the area for several days, with the girl’s family and neighbors asking that the search be expanded. But in this case, the officials reportedly refused to extend the search saying that there was no indication of the child leaving the road in the CCTV footage they received.
What is the whole matter:
According to The news minute, a class five student from the Scheduled Caste (SC) Paraiyar community in Tamil Nadu was found dead in a nearby drain on March 5. A day later, two men living in areas not searched by the police were booked for allegedly kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering her. M Karunas alias Kakka (19) of the Paraiyar caste and G Harikrishnan Vivekananda (54) of the Yadavar caste, falling under the Other Backward Class (OBC), were arrested on March 6.
Shaken by the horrific nature of the crime, residents of the Union Territory (UT) soon took to the streets in large numbers demanding the culprits be hanged or shot dead. However, police sources say the crime is not linked to drug or alcohol use. The residents of Muthialpet have alleged in this case that both the accused were regular consumers of ganja and alcohol. Drugs are available in abundance in the region and such crime has given way to a renewed campaign against drugs and alcohol in Puducherry. As the Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the opposition parties have also taken charge with Puducherry’s All India NR Congress (AINRC) protesting against the drug and liquor policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
What did the father say about the girl?
According to The News Minute , the girl went missing from her home on Saturday , March 2, when the victim and her 11-year-old sister were alone after their parents went to work. Both the girls did not go to school, but both parents had to go to work early in the morning. The father drives pickup trucks for a living, while the girls’ mothers do domestic work in some homes.
“Our nine-year-old daughter was a bold girl. “Even when left alone, she was able to take care of herself,” says her father. Even that day, she assured us that she would be playing with her dolls outside the house. So we dropped her and her sister at home and went to work around 7.30 am. But that was the last time she saw her, the mother says, because when she returned home at 4.45pm, the nine-year-old was nowhere to be found. “I searched for her for a long time and by 6.45 or 7 pm I went to the police station and lodged a missing complaint,” the girl’s mother said in her statement, adding, “It is not normal for her to go anywhere without informing us. She usually just goes to school and then for tuition, and later in the evening, she would play outside the house. Still, she always came home before her father did, and that was around 6.30 or 7 in the evening,”
Decision to stop the search operation on a particular road:
According to The news minute, in this case Kutty, who is the secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) of Muthiyalpet constituency, says that he and some youth of the area had searched for the girl in a nearby drainage canal. Wondering if the girl had slipped and fallen into it. There was no trace of him at that time. This was the same drain where his body was found three days later, and there is still no clarity as to who had placed the body there and how. The police refused to disclose any details about the crime, citing the sensitivity of it. On March 3, several police officers were sent to search the area for the child. With the help of some residents, they also obtained CCTV footage from cameras installed in two different parts of the street. In the footage, the girl, wearing shorts and a white t-shirt, is seen entering the street where her house is. But there was no sight to indicate that she had gone out, due to which the police decided to stop their search operation on that particular road.
The news minute reports that “the police kept showing us the CCTV footage and kept insisting that my child should not go beyond this area. I begged them to search other places also, as all the people here are my relatives and I knew they would not harm my child. But the officers did not listen to us. They continued searching in the same street and did not even go beyond the end of the street.
Second accused involved in search operation:
Residents say police searched the street, including inside all houses, including refrigerators, washing machines and water sumps, The News Minute reported. Kutti says that he had also taken big wooden sticks and dug a drain canal, but the girl was not found. Sumathi, another resident of the area, said that they all had requested the policemen to search the nearby streets as well, but to no avail. The house of first accused Vivekananda was on the adjacent streets, on which residents had repeatedly requested the police to search. Many people from Muthialpet were searching for the missing girl, walking in every direction and shouting her name hoping for a reaction. These included Karunas, who was later made the second accused of assault and murder of the child.
What did the local residents say about the accused?
Locally, Karunas is known for his alleged drug dealing, and many residents say they keep their distance from him, The News Minute reports. But one of the residents says that when he was looking for the child, he seemed genuine, Felician, 40, a neighbor of Carunas, says that ‘Carunas was my neighbor and we have known him since he was a child. He was right by us when we were looking for a baby. We were suspicious of some of the youth in the area, but we never doubted Karuna because we knew her well. Moreover, he was also searching for him,” while another local resident Sumathi is in complete disbelief after hearing that Karuna was involved in the crime. “He was roaming everywhere, tuning into the news and looking for the girl. We knew he was addicted to marijuana, but we never thought he could get into this. In my 60 years of life, I have never seen or heard of such a brutal crime being committed in Puducherry,”
What did the girl’s father say about the accused?
According to the report of The News Minute, the father of the nine-year-old girl said that he had also seen Karuna once or twice when he was searching for the girl in the neighborhood. Karuna is a known figure to the residents of Muthialpet, while Vivekananda is a mystery to most of them. His neighbors describe him as aloof, with many conspiracy theories circulating about him. They know he is separated from his wife, and lives in a house about 200 meters away from the home of the 9-year-old girl he has now been accused of sexually assaulting and murdering.
Both the accused were seen drinking alcohol and doing drugs together:
The news minute report also revealed that Vivekananda’s two-storey house appears to be partially damaged, and is attached to a cowshed. Vivekananda lives in one room on the upper floor, while the other is not used. The cows in the house are managed by his younger brother’s wife. The father of a nine-year-old girl tells that he would sometimes send his daughters to Vivekananda’s house to collect curd. Although the police are still tight-lipped about the relationship between Vivekananda and Karuna, residents say they have often seen the two drinking and doing drugs together.
The news minute reports that despite a two-day search operation, the police were unable to find the girl and started bringing all the history-sheeters of the area to the station and interrogated them. He also did not initially suspect Karuna, as he was part of the search team. Later, when a police personnel saw that Karuna had not been interrogated yet, he decided to take her to the police station for questioning on the morning of March 5. A senior police officer told us that as soon as Karuna realized that she was being taken to the station, she started hurting herself with the blade.
Campaign against alcohol, drugs:
Sudha Sundararaman, national vice-president of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), says the horrific nature of the crime and speculations of both the accused taking drugs have now paved the way for a massive anti-alcohol and anti-drug campaign in the Union Territory Is. When TNM was visiting Muthialpet, at least five people stopped us to tell us how drugs and alcohol are freely available in the area, alleging that it is ruining the UT. However, police have not yet made any public statement linking the crime to the use of drugs or alcohol.
Puducherry is popular for its cheap availability of alcohol, and is even called a ‘wine economy’, as it has been largely dependent on the sale of alcohol since the time of French colonization. Sudha says that anti-liquor and drug movement has been going on in UT for many decades. He said, ‘Even in the early 2000s, we had joined hands with other women’s organizations and launched a big campaign against alcohol. We wanted a complete ban on alcohol, but we realized that such a change could not be brought about immediately. Therefore, we wanted to at least ensure that these liquor shops are not set up close to bus stops, homes, schools or places of worship. But despite their efforts, there has been a recent policy change in Puducherry, liberalizing the availability of liquor with the opening of new restabars and pubs, says Sudha. After twenty years in the year 2022, the Government of Puducherry started granting new licenses for setting up of India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) blending and bottling units (BBUs) in Puducherry, saying that this would be for “employment generation”. Is. FL-2 tourist category licenses (permission to serve liquor for consumption) were also granted to 186 entertainment centres, restaurants and outlets by the excise department. Since then, the opposition and former Chief Minister V Narayanaswami have been accusing the ruling AINRC-BJP government of allowing liquor shops and demanding its closure.
“This change is happening in the backdrop of Puducherry being designated as a tourism hub,” says Sudha. But many residents are worried that their own people are becoming collateral damage in the bid to please tourists. “A large section of the local population here drinks alcohol every day. Even school boys and young adults are addicted to alcohol. It has become a habit among local residents due to the easy availability of alcohol,” she says. “There are many guest houses, bars and clubs where we can easily get ganja and drugs. We complained about this to the government and police several times but no action was taken. Even if they catch someone using marijuana or drugs, they don’t follow the lead and catch others,” Felician says.
People took to the streets in protest:
After the details of the child’s rape and murder were publicly revealed by the media, a large section of the UT population took to the streets, angered by both the failure of the police and the alleged role played by drugs and alcohol in the crime. . The protests were led by the INDIA block of opposition parties – mainly Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Puducherry came to a standstill on March 8 after opposition parties called for a complete shutdown in the Union Territory. Both public and private establishments observed the bandh, with shops, restaurants and cinema halls remaining closed for business. Transport facilities were also badly affected.
The police officer we spoke to says the murder of the nine-year-old boy is not drug-related as the media has claimed. But he does not refute the allegation that drug consumption has increased manifold in the Union Territory.
About 72 hours after the girl’s disappearance, on March 5, at around 2.30 pm, an object like a sack was found floating in the drainage canal behind the cow shed near Vivekananda’s house. The police lifted the ‘sack’ with the help of residents, only to find that it was the decomposed body of a child, tied and wrapped in a white dhoti. Her body was immediately wrapped in a blanket and taken to the government hospital at Kadirkamam, and later transferred to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) for an autopsy.
Slogans raised for the safety of women and children:
Kutti, one of the five people who identified the body at the mortuary, said its hands and legs were tied and its mouth was badly damaged. “His body was tied like a sack inside a white dhoti. There were injury marks all over his body, including bite marks. The investigation team has not yet revealed details of the crime, including where and how the body was hidden. The room where residents allege the incident took place has been sealed. Although the police have arrested two people in connection with the crime, the anger among the people has not subsided yet. When TNM visited Muthialpet on March 8, which is celebrated as International Women’s Day across the world, we saw a group of women activists tied with black bands protesting on the road. They were raising slogans demanding safety of women and children in Puducherry and demanding immediate action against the culprits. Hoardings and posters demanding justice for the child have been put up in every nook and corner of the Union Territory.
Former Lieutenant Governor met the child’s family:
Former Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai had met the child’s family on March 7. She later told the media that several women urged her to “hang those men” and “shoot them.” She said, “I know we cannot take the law into our hands, but I can understand the feelings of those women. Residents have expressed deep anguish and anger towards media channels and social media users who propagate fake news to capitalize on a sensitive crime for viewership. They cite how the viral photograph of seven persons was publicized by some media, claiming that these people were involved in the “gang rape” of the child.
What did the State Joint Secretary say?
Sivachandran, state joint secretary of VCK’s Radical Students Forum, has urged the Puducherry government to curb the availability of ganja in Puducherry. The forum also demands immediate action against the accused and a government job to at least one of the child’s parents. He said, ‘Apart from this, the government has announced to give Rs 20 lakh to the family. They should increase it to Rs 1 crore.
