A horrific incident of alleged caste violence has been reported from Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, where a disabled Dalit man and a migrant worker from Odisha were killed in a brutal attack in Perumpaththu village.
It has also emerged that two of the accused had previously been charged in another caste attack a few years ago, though their identities were withheld then under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
According to reports, on March 2, seven men armed with sickles carried out an indiscriminate attack in Perumpaththu village, near Nanguneri.
The assault left two people dead, a disabled Dalit man and a migrant labourer from Odisha, while six others, including members of an Other Backward Class (OBC) community, sustained injuries.
Police have arrested seven accused, identified as Kannan (21), Vasantha Kumar (21), Anthony Michel (18), Uchimahali alias Mittai (20), Raja alias Esakkiraja (19), Subbaia alias Subash (19), and Kalyani (19).
While police initially did not confirm the motive behind the attack, reports now indicate that the assault was allegedly planned by a group of young men from dominant intermediate castes to intimidate and silence Dalit youth in the area.
One of the accused is reportedly the nephew of R. S. Sudalaikannu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) union secretary of Nanguneri. However, Sudalaikannu has stated that he has had no contact with his nephew for the past five years.
The region had only recently begun recovering from another caste-related attack. In August 2023, seven teenage boys from the Maravar (Most Backward Class) community allegedly attacked a Dalit student, Chinnadurai, with sickles inside his home in Nanguneri town. Chinnadurai survived the assault but was grievously injured, while his 13-year-old sister, who rushed to help him, was also wounded.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.