Dalit woman gang-raped in Madurai, cops yet to register case under SC/ST Act

After a 33-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in Madurai district last week, police are yet to register the crime under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, or PoA Act. The victim, Lekshmi (name changed), was lured to a location near Melur on July 8 under false promises of a job. She was allegedly held at knifepoint, abused with caste slurs, beaten, and gang-raped. All the five accused men have now been arrested. The accused have been identified as Veerapandi, Vinith, Aravind, Selvakumar, and Gopalakrishnan. All five men belong to the Valaiyar community, categorised as Most Backward Class (MBC). They have been charged under BNS sections for gang-rape, criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt, rioting, and robbery. Asked why the PoA Act has not been invoked, the Melur All Women’s Police Station, where the case is registered, told TNM, “We are in the process of acquiring the victim’s community certificate. If we get it, we will alter the FIR accordingly.”  According to Madurai-based rights organisation Evidence, who conducted a fact-finding field visit and spoke to the victim, a sixth individual named Anitha is yet to be charged. Anitha and Lekshmi are neighbours and live in Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district. Anitha allegedly told Lekshmi, a construction worker, about a domestic worker job in Melur town that would pay Rs 40,000 a month. On the night of July 7, Anitha allegedly received a call from Veerapandi. She handed over the phone to Lekshmi. Veerapandi allegedly falsely identified himself as Karuppasamy and posed as someone hiring for the domestic worker job. Veerapandi claimed that he works in Singapore but is presently in Melur. He directed Lekshmi to wait for him outside the Melur Taluk office at 2.30 pm on July 8. But Lekshmi was made to wait there for five hours, as Veerapandi allegedly kept claiming he was busy with other work. Eventually, Veerapandi allegedly called Lekshmi at around 7.30 pm and said that his younger brother would pick her up as he was still busy. The ‘brother’, now identified as Gopalakrishnan, picked Lekshmi up on a two-wheeler and took her to a nearby village.  Here, the other accused appeared and allegedly held Lekshmi at knifepoint before sexually assaulting her. They later fled, hearing approaching vehicles, abandoning Lekshmi. The gang also allegedly broke her phone and snatched a gold chain, anklets, and Rs 500 from her. Lekshmi was forced to ask strangers on the road for help and was eventually taken by police personnel on rounds to the Melur All Women’s Police Station, where a case was registered. In a statement, Evidence demanded that police also charge the accused under relevant sections of the PoA Act. By law, crimes against Dalit people committed by anyone who is not Dalit or Adivasi must be registered under the Act. Evidence has also demanded a probe into Anitha’s alleged connection to the gang, an assured monthly government aid of Rs 20,000 apart from the Rs 12 lakh due to Lekshmi under the PoA Act, as well as proper medical and mental health treatment.