IMPORTANT WARNING AND CAUTION:
Patients, feeble and weak hearted, those having high/low BP, and other sensitive persons are cautioned before reading further. Be forewarned.
VACHATHI. A sleepy hamlet at the foothills of the Sitheri Hills about 12 kms from Harur, in Dharmapuri Dist of Tamilnadu. Inhabited by extremely poor, illliterate Adivasis.
On June 20, 1992 (nineteen years ago) about 155 forest personnel and 108 policemen, and 6 revenue dept officials (a total of 269 personnel) swooped on this sleepy village and raided, searching for sandalwood, allegedly hidden by villagers. In the name of inquiry, villagers, mainly women, were dragged out of their homes and fields and assembled under a banyan tree where they were allegedly beaten up; then, they were bundled out to the Forest Ranger's Office in Harur where they were allegedly subjected to savage brutality.
18 women were picked randomly and were gang-raped. 103 women,including a pregnant one, were remanded to Salem Central prison. The whole village was ravaged by the Forest and Police personnel. All the chickens, goats, cows etc had ended up in their food-plates. The poor people incl pregnant women lived under the rocks,behind the bushes in fear. All the grains (rice, wheat etc) of the people were mixed up with glass splinters. No food, no clothes, no shelter for the villagers - the entire village was a ghost place.
Perumal (now 70) was the Oor Gounder (the Head) and he was taken into custody and brought to the Range Office at Harur. Over 90 tribal women from Vachathi were already there. He was stripped and allegedly beaten up with uruttu kattais and bamboo sticks. When he collapsed, the women were given brooms (vilakkumaru, thudaippam) and asked to thrash the collapsed Chief. When the women, many of them close relatives of the chief, refused, they were beaten severely with uruttukattais and they had to oblige. Luckily, his wife Kuppu and daughter were spared from beating their husband / father.
District Collector refused to listen to their travails - "too difficult to believe", he is said to have told. Outside world came to know about the brutality only after 13 days. CPI (M), its MLAs and MPs took up their case, took the 100 plus women out from the Salem Prison on bail, gave them food, clothes, shelter.
Had it not been for their relentless protests and campaigns, the then Govt of Tamilnadu would have swept the horror under the carpet. (Interestingly, the then TN Govt was of AIADMK, the chief minister being Jayalalithaa!)
After the CPI(M) MP filed a petition in the Chennai High Court, the HC ordered a CBI probe in 1995. That it took 32 months for an FIR to be registered in the case would speak volumes about the administrative callousness and influential attempts to bury the barbaric assault on an entire village.
In 1996 the CBI filed the charge sheet at Coimbatore; the trial was first shifted to Krishnagiri and then to Dharmapuri. As usual many attempts were made to delay the court proceedings, numerous (false) cases were filed in the HC to stall the case.
All the hurdles were crossed, the trial went on for 15 years (yes, 15 years!) and yesterday (26th Sep 2011) the Principal District Judge of Dharmapuri S Kumaraguru was to pronounce the judgement. The judge has put off the judgement to 29th Sep (Thursday).
The villagers are praying to their village Goddess Maariyaththa for a deserving punishment to the culprits. Let us all join in their prayers. JOIN THEM. Let the town DHARMAPURI live upto its name and let Dharma prevail.
**** The New Indian Express had devoted a full page yesterday for this coverage and i have used liberally from this newspaper
rajappa
27 Sept 2011
On 29 Sept 2011:
215 out of 215. All the 215 accused are found guilty. The details of their punishment will be known in a couple of hours.
Probably, this is the first instance in the history of India's judicial system that 215 persond were accused, tried, and ALL the 215 persons were found guilty and sentenced. A record. {All the 269 were found guilty but 54 had died in these 19 years}
Patients, feeble and weak hearted, those having high/low BP, and other sensitive persons are cautioned before reading further. Be forewarned.
VACHATHI. A sleepy hamlet at the foothills of the Sitheri Hills about 12 kms from Harur, in Dharmapuri Dist of Tamilnadu. Inhabited by extremely poor, illliterate Adivasis.
On June 20, 1992 (nineteen years ago) about 155 forest personnel and 108 policemen, and 6 revenue dept officials (a total of 269 personnel) swooped on this sleepy village and raided, searching for sandalwood, allegedly hidden by villagers. In the name of inquiry, villagers, mainly women, were dragged out of their homes and fields and assembled under a banyan tree where they were allegedly beaten up; then, they were bundled out to the Forest Ranger's Office in Harur where they were allegedly subjected to savage brutality.
18 women were picked randomly and were gang-raped. 103 women,including a pregnant one, were remanded to Salem Central prison. The whole village was ravaged by the Forest and Police personnel. All the chickens, goats, cows etc had ended up in their food-plates. The poor people incl pregnant women lived under the rocks,behind the bushes in fear. All the grains (rice, wheat etc) of the people were mixed up with glass splinters. No food, no clothes, no shelter for the villagers - the entire village was a ghost place.
Perumal (now 70) was the Oor Gounder (the Head) and he was taken into custody and brought to the Range Office at Harur. Over 90 tribal women from Vachathi were already there. He was stripped and allegedly beaten up with uruttu kattais and bamboo sticks. When he collapsed, the women were given brooms (vilakkumaru, thudaippam) and asked to thrash the collapsed Chief. When the women, many of them close relatives of the chief, refused, they were beaten severely with uruttukattais and they had to oblige. Luckily, his wife Kuppu and daughter were spared from beating their husband / father.
District Collector refused to listen to their travails - "too difficult to believe", he is said to have told. Outside world came to know about the brutality only after 13 days. CPI (M), its MLAs and MPs took up their case, took the 100 plus women out from the Salem Prison on bail, gave them food, clothes, shelter.
Had it not been for their relentless protests and campaigns, the then Govt of Tamilnadu would have swept the horror under the carpet. (Interestingly, the then TN Govt was of AIADMK, the chief minister being Jayalalithaa!)
After the CPI(M) MP filed a petition in the Chennai High Court, the HC ordered a CBI probe in 1995. That it took 32 months for an FIR to be registered in the case would speak volumes about the administrative callousness and influential attempts to bury the barbaric assault on an entire village.
In 1996 the CBI filed the charge sheet at Coimbatore; the trial was first shifted to Krishnagiri and then to Dharmapuri. As usual many attempts were made to delay the court proceedings, numerous (false) cases were filed in the HC to stall the case.
All the hurdles were crossed, the trial went on for 15 years (yes, 15 years!) and yesterday (26th Sep 2011) the Principal District Judge of Dharmapuri S Kumaraguru was to pronounce the judgement. The judge has put off the judgement to 29th Sep (Thursday).
The villagers are praying to their village Goddess Maariyaththa for a deserving punishment to the culprits. Let us all join in their prayers. JOIN THEM. Let the town DHARMAPURI live upto its name and let Dharma prevail.
**** The New Indian Express had devoted a full page yesterday for this coverage and i have used liberally from this newspaper
rajappa
27 Sept 2011
On 29 Sept 2011:
215 out of 215. All the 215 accused are found guilty. The details of their punishment will be known in a couple of hours.
Probably, this is the first instance in the history of India's judicial system that 215 persond were accused, tried, and ALL the 215 persons were found guilty and sentenced. A record. {All the 269 were found guilty but 54 had died in these 19 years}
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