Tamil Nadu: Tension in Vellore village after dalit steps on yadava youth's foot

VELLORE: Tension prevailed in Keezhmuttukur village, 25km from Vellore, after a group of vanniyars, supporting a yadava youth, attacked dalits and torched two of their motorcycles in the early hours of Thursday.


The attack came in the wake of a dalit school student stepping on the foot of the yadava youth while travelling in a bus on Tuesday.

Two dalit students of Keezhmuttukur dalit colony, studying in Class X and Class XI, used to travel by bus to their school in Vaduganthangal village, a senior police officer said. When they were going to school on Tuesday, the Class X student stepped on the foot of Dharani, 27, a yadava, also from Keezhmuttukur. Dharani worked as a daily wage labourer in a firm near Gudiyatham.

The matter was said to have been resolved immediately after the student apologized for his inadvertent act. Dharani and his vanniyar friends, Lalith, 20, also from Keezhmuttukur, allegedly abused them using their caste name and threatened them when they came to the Vaduganthangal busstand the following day. Spotting this, some dalit youths engaged in a heated argument with the vanniyar men, who had gathered at the spot, triggering tension in the area. Later, when the dalit youths were returning on bikes from a police station, the violence erupted. A large crowd of vanniyars intercepted and attacked them with sticks and torched two motorcycles belonging to the dalits. As the situation threatened to spiral out of control, more than 50 police personnel from nearby Latheri and Panamadangi reached the spot.

“Based on a complaint by Dharani, K V Kuppam police officers invited both sides for an inquiry and later released all of them after warning strict action against those indulging in violence. To avert further tension, none of them were arrested and only a community service register (CSR) was issued in this connection,” said a senior police officer.

A police officer investigating the case, on condition of anonymity, said, “As a majority of persons from both groups absconded, we are searching for those involved in the attack.”

When contacted, Vellore SP K Pravesh Kumar said, “Police personnel have been deployed in the village and the accused involved in the attack would be arrested soon.”