Chennai: The south Tamil Nadu police has acquired brickbats after having failed to forestall murders and beheadings right here, together with within the districts of Dindigul and Tirunelveli.

People dwelling in these areas are anxious whether or not these killings are just like those that passed off within the mid 90s in addition to reprisal killings within the identify of caste. It was solely after robust police intervention that these areas had returned to normalcy.

Twentyeight-year-old Sudheer Kumar, a younger IT skilled from Tirunelveli who works in a multinational firm at Chennai, instructed IANS, “I am very much ashamed to tell people that I belong to Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu after all these beheadings in my home district. The fight in the name of caste and reprisal killings after several years for revenge is taking us back to the stone age. I won’t go back home till the situation turns normal.”

A farmhand, Sankara Subramanian from the Thevar caste, was murdered on September 13 and his decapitated head was discovered on the Gopalasamudram cremation floor. This gave the police an important clue behind the homicide of Subramanian as in 2013, Manthiram, a Dalit man was additionally murdered in the identical manner.

In a case of retaliation, on September 15, a gang murdered a Dalit, Mariappan (35), lower off his head and positioned it on the spot the place Sankara Subramanian was murdered. Mariappan was accused in a homicide case of 2014.

Police arrested six individuals together with Manthiram’s son Maharaja(20) for the homicide of Sankara Subramanian and eight individuals have been arrested for the homicide of Mariappan.

While each these murders passed off in Tirunelveli district inside a span of two days, in one other ugly incident, a girl Nirmala Devi (70) the fifth accused within the homicide of a Dalit chief, C. Pasupathi Pandian, was murdered and her head severed and stored in entrance of the residence of Pandian.

Nirmala Devi was charged within the homicide of Pandian after she had given asylum to the suspected assailants of the Dalit chief. The incident occurred in broad daylight in Dindigul district on September 23.

In one other incident, 38-year-old Stephen Raj was murdered and beheaded on September 23 night by bike-borne assailants. His decapitated head was left on the spot the place he was murdered at Anumantharayan Kottai. The police couldn’t confirm the explanation behind the homicide of Stephen Raj and is probing whether or not it had any reference to the homicide of Nirmala Devi on the identical day.

The killings and counter killings in South Tamil Nadu districts within the identify of caste have stored the police on its toes. South Zone Inspector General of Police TS Anbu, who’s tenting in Tirunelveli, instructed media individuals that the police will crush the gangs who’re taking the regulation into their arms and that no legal raj could be allowed in South Tamil Nadu.

A retired senior police officer stated that the scenario is worse than in 1995 when bus companies have been stopped within the evenings for 40 days at a stretch as a result of caste killings and reprisals. He stated that these days there have been cops who had hearth of their bellies and who have been go-getters however now there are officers whose knees shake when confronting an irate mob.

With Tirunelveli having rural native physique elections on October 6 and October 9, political events have known as upon the police to make sure that the regulation and order scenario improves.

AIADMK chief O. Panneerselvam has known as upon Chief Minister M.Okay. Stalin to make sure peace and concord in South Tamil Nadu and to not permit killings and counter killings to occur within the space.

A social activist, Shyam Krishnan of Tirunelveli, stated {that a} caste-dominated legal eco-system is evolving within the space, overtly accumulating funds to battle instances within the court docket for the criminals who’ve dedicated the murders and severed heads. He stated that quantities ranging upto Rs 20,000 are being paid by prosperous individuals belonging to the identical caste to battle the legal instances.

Sources within the police stated that they’d data of a selected group having raised cash to the tune of Rs 3 crore to battle the legal instances and to interact good attorneys.

Dr. M.Okay. Krishnan, social scientist and former Professor of Social Sciences at a international college who’s from South Tamil Nadu, instructed IANS, “Until and unless the hero tag is removed from the criminals who kill and severe the head of a person, these criminal acts would continue. There needs to be proper awareness and education among local youths that killing a person and severing his head is not heroism. Sadly this is not happening in several parts of South Tamil Nadu and caste is still a major factor that decides human behaviour. Authorities have to take strong measures but proper awareness is a must to prevent such incidents in the future.”