Thread by @lokeshbag67

Melavalavu Dalit Massacre (1996) : A case that exposed upper caste hegemony

#melavalavumurugesan #melavalavumassacre

In September 1996, the village of Melavalavu, in Madurai district, was declared a reserved constituency under Article 243D of the Indian constitution.

The statement noted that the Panchayat Melavalavu (Village Council), which covers eight villages with about 1,000 Dalit families, would have reserved seats for the scheduled caste.

In June 1997, a group murder of elected Dalits by neighboring Thevars signaled that constitutionally mandated shifts in legal power to scheduled castes would not be tolerated by Upper castes. Democracy failed.

Dr. George Mathew of the New Delhi Institute of Social Sciences visited the area along with two other researchers soon after the murders. He published his conclusions in an article in The Hindu:

The announcement of reservations in Melavalavu in 1996 led to a threat of “economic sanctions” by the upper caste against Dalits.

The sanction would effectively leave Dalits  without employment or access to economic and social services in villages in that area.

As reported in the Bombay-based daily, Times of India, “They were warned that they would lose their jobs as farmhands and not be allowed to graze cattle or draw water from wells located on ‘patta’ [unutilized] land held by the dominant castes.”

The elections, scheduled for October 1996, were subsequently canceled, as all three Dalit nominees withdrew their candidacy for fear of sanctions against the entire scheduled-caste electorate.

When polling finally did take place in February 1997, the election was suspended after several incidents of booth capturing.

A 35-year-old Dalit named Murugesan won the presidency in the third round of polling, which took place under the strong police protection and was boycotted by the upper castes.

He was, unable to perform his tasks as president: neighboring Thevars physically prevented him from entering his office space at the panchayat building.

With police protection the election was held, but at the end of the day upper-caste people entered into the booth and threatened and stabbed one boy and beat both men and women and took away the ballot boxes and threw them into the well.

Then again they declared elections after one week.  In that one they elected Murugesan.

Murugesan’s twenty-six-year-old widow, Manimegala, described the threats that her husband had received after winning the presidency:

On the day of the attack, June 30, 1997, Murugesan was returning from a visit to the collector’s office to inquire about compensation for houses burned in an earlier incident.

Kumar, an eyewitness who barely survived the attack himself, boarded the bus and sat next to Murugesan. The 35-year-old dalit panchayat president K Murugesan, 39-year-old dalit panchayat vice-president K. Mookan, and four of their aides.

This is how Kumar explained the incident :

When the attackers noticed his presence, Kumar was chased into the fields and cut with a bill hook on the back of his neck, his right underarm, and his finger but ultimately managed to escape by fleeing into the plantation fields of a Dalit village.

A total of twelve persons were arrested within a month of the incident.  However, eyewitnesses have claimed that the ringleaders were not among them.

A two-member team from the State Human Rights Commission visited the village in early August, five weeks after the killings.  Hundreds of women testified to incidents of theft, the burning of Dalit houses, and stone-throwing at night.

They also complained of their inability to go to work in the fields, of a lack of police protection, and that most of the men had fled the village out of fear.

Karupaia, Murugesan’s older brother, organized a march on August 8, 1997 to protest the lack of action on the part of the police.  Participants estimated the number of marchers at 3,000, both men and women.

They named the principal culprits as Ramar, Alagarsami, Poniah, Baskarar, Andichami, Markandan, Duraipandian, Chandran, Selvam, Alagu, Vadivelu, Karanthamalai, Ranganathan, Chakarmurti, Chockanathar, Sedhu, Rajendran, and Jothi.

When they approached the taluk office, the superintendent of police (SP) and other officials were there.  From above the building, a red-colored cloth was thrown down. A “country bomb” fell and exploded.  Everyone scattered.

There are iron pieces from the bomb inside Karuppan’s leg.  Tirumavalavan, the leader of the Dalit Panthers of India who led the procession, was the intended target.

Tirumavalavan proceeded to inform the SP that the people who threw the bomb had descended from the building and were getting away.  Many pointed them out, but the police refused to arrest them.

The marchers then started throwing stones.  The SP ordered a lathi-charge on the procession, and many of the protesters were severely injured.

The police arrested a total of thirty-six protesters and charged them under the Indian Explosives Act and under Indian Penal Code sections 147, 148, 323 and 436 for rioting, rioting with a deadly weapon, voluntarily causing hurt, and mischief by explosive substance.

They also arrested a member of DPI and held him responsible for setting off the bomb.

On July 10, 1997, members of the Social Action Movement, a grassroots NGO, demonstrated in front of the Madurai collectorate’s office in order to highlight the plight of the villagers in the aftermath of the murders.

On July 23, 1997, DPI marched to demand the release of all Dalits arrested under the National Security Act in connection with the murders.

Over the months, the murder investigation was handed over to the CB-CID. Necessitated by the murders, a by-poll was held on November 21, 1997 during which A. Raja, a close relative of Murugesan was elected as the panchayat president.

In April 1998, a group of advocates presented a memorandum to the then Chief Justice M.S. Liberhan to set up a Division Bench to deal with the cancellation of bail granted by a single judge to 30 men who were accused of the murders.

However, four months later, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justice T. Jayarama Chouta and Justice V. Bakthavatsalu, on September 24, held as not maintainable the petition filed by the group of advocates.

On December 18, 1998, a petition seeking a re-investigation by the CBI into the Melavalavu massacre was dismissed by the Madras High Court. The petition filed by S. Krishnan who was one of the persons injured during the murderous assault.

Two years later, accepting a plea from Murugesan’s brother K. Karuppiah and M. Kumar, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justice N. Dinakar and Mr. Justice P. Sathasivam ..//.

directed the transfer of the Melavalavu murder case from a special court in Madurai to the Principal Sessions Court in Salem on December 15, 2000 to ensure a fair trial.

While 44 accused were charge-sheeted, 17 of them were given life sentence by the Principal District and Sessions Judge A.S. Ramalingam.

A year after conviction, the 17 men were let off on conditional bail by the Madras High Court in November 2002 while their appeal challenging their life sentence was still pending, ...

based on Melur police inspector’s report stating “now both the communities are maintaining cordiality in the village”.

Quashing the order of the High Court, the Supreme Court, on February 16, 2005 cancelled the bail, following which they were all taken into custody and lodged at Madurai central prison the next day.

Confirming the trial court’s order, the life imprisonment awarded to the 17 convicts was upheld by the Madras High Court on April 19, 2006.

The Division Bench comprising Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar said, “evidence was clear that the murders were committed to terrorise the dalit community and prevent them from contesting elections."

The Supreme Court confirmed the convictions in 2009.

The state government released 13 convicts in the case citing good conduct as part of the MGR centenary celebrations ( in 2019)

thehindu.com/news/national/…

Three other convicts in the case were also freed on Anna Birthday celebration earlier in 2008.

Another convict, Jothi, died in prison in 2010.

With this, all the convicts, all of whom are upper caste, in the sensational murder case have been released.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has passed an interim order restricting the 13 convicts who were released in the 1997 Melavalavu murder case from entering the village in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.

They have been directed to stay in the Vellore district till the petition challenging the government order (GO) passed for their early release is disposed of.

newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-n…

The judges on February 18, 2020 said, "Since there is no representation from the litigants' side, we have no other option but to withdraw the interim order passed on November 27, 2019."

When five women from the bereaved families moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on February 21, 2020 challenging the premature release of the 13 life convicts, Judge clubbed it to be heard along with similar petitions filed earlier.

thehindu.com/news/national/…