Vengaivayal residents say they will boycott election

alit residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha election, citing the failure of the police to arrest the culprits who were involved in mixing human faeces in the overhead drinking water tank at the village in December 2022. A couple of banners put up by the residents announcing their decision was removed later in the day.

The CBCID has been investigating the incident reported in the village, located in Muttukkadu panchayat, on December 26, 2022. But no breakthrough has been achieved so far. In the absence of direct evidence or witnesses, the CBCID has been trying to find some scientific evidence and has been conducting DNA tests and voice analysis of some of the suspects in the case.

On Monday, the Dalit residents of Vengaivayal put up banners announcing their decision to boycott the election at two places in the village. The village has about 30 families from the Dalit community. “It is going to be two years since the incident took place, but we haven’t got justice as yet. Politicians knock on our doors only during election time. Only for a brief time after the incident took place, did our issue become a sensation. People here have been mentally traumatised,” said M. Sindhuja, a Dalit resident, while speaking to The Hindu.

“We could not even travel by bus to another village to attend a function as the police suspected that we may be going to a protest somewhere. Our relatives are unable to enter the village as strict police scrutiny continues. To hold a function, we have to get permission from the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and Superintendent of Police (SP). We are boycotting this Lok Sabha election as we don’t have any other option left,” she added.

K.R. Murugan, another resident of the village, said: “With the constant police presence in our village, it feels like an open prison. There must come an end to all of this. Since we are very few in number, we believe no one wants to take up our issue.”

Later in the day, district election officials said the banners had been removed by the villagers. However, the villagers alleged that that officials asked them to remove the banners. Two of the residents, K. Sadhasivam and S. Pandiselvi, told The Hindu that officials from the police and Revenue Department visited the village and asked them to remove the banners. “They said if we do not remove the banner an FIR will be filed against us. They made us remove the banner and then took the banner,” they said. However, when contacted, the Kulathur tahsildar R. Kaviarasan said the villagers removed the banner by themselves.

BJP State president K. Annamalai, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), condemned the State government for not finding the culprits behind the incident and said It had been 16 months since the crime was committed. The investigation was nothing but an eye wash, and the DMK government wanted to keep the issue away from public memory, he alleged.

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