On July 4, a 40-year-old Dalit woman from the Sriraman village in Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu, had left her house at around noon to take a bath. When she didn’t return for a long time, her father went in search of her. He found his daughter’s body near a local temple which fell in the limits of the neighbouring Cuddalore district.
The victim had reportedly been in a relationship for the past 2 to 5 years (reports vary in the exact amount of time) with a man named Palani, a 45-year-old widower from the Vanniyar caste.
Although historically associated with agricultural labour and classified by the government as a backward class, Vanniyars have increasing influence in Tamil Nadu. The Vanniyar community have come to own land and therefore power, over time. Vanniyar political organizations, such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) have been known for anti-Dalit mobilizations and violence.
Palani’s sons Muthuvel, Ajith Kumar, and Seth, were against his relationship with the victim. Palani’s three sons had inflicted caste-based gendered violence on her five months prior to her death. Muthuvel, Ajith Kumar and Seth had stripped the victim and tied her to an electricity pole, after which they beat her and hurled caste slurs at her. The three sons forced the victim’s family to apologize and promise to them that she will discontinue the relationship.
Due to this history of caste violence she had faced from them, the victim’s family believed that the victim had been raped and murdered by the three Vanniyar men. The condition in which her body was also suspicious and suggested foul play. She was found kneeling next to a tree with a cloth tied around a neck, the other end of which was tied to the tree.
According to witnesses’ accounts and reports, she was found dead tied to the tree while she was kneeling, her clothes were in a disarray and had blood on them. However, the police claimed that it was a suicide.
The police did not send the victim’s body for a post-mortem until 300 people from the victim’s village protested outside the police station two days after her murder.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) was one of the organisations that mobilized to demand that the victim’s body be sent for a post-mortem. The VCK was formerly known as the Dalit Panthers Iyyakam in Tamil Nadu, a movement inspired by the Dalit Panthers in Maharasthra. The Panchayat President of the VCK said that Palani called the victim on the day of her murder, suggesting an association between Palani and the events of that day.
This was contrary to the police’s account that she had called Palani using another woman’s phone, asking him for liquor.
The police blamed the violence on the victim and erased her and her family’s experience of casteist violence by not only claiming that she had committed suicide without a satisfactory investigation, but further claiming that she had called Palani from another woman’s phone at noon on that day asking for liquor. A claim like this, although made without substantial evidence and irrelevant to ascertaining whether or not she committed suicide, shifts the onus on the family to defend her from this blame. The implication of making such a claim is that the victim was a loose woman, calling a man in order to procure liquor. This idea of the victim as an unreliable and compromised character is used to justify the violence against her and undermine the family’s agency in seeking justice.
