Chennai: The Special Court for the trial of cases registered under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Wednesday sentenced three persons to one year of rigorous imprisonment for forcing boys of Scheduled Caste community to clean their excreta on open ground at Sirkundal village in Perambalur in December 2020.
The special court slapped Rs 1,000 fine each on the three persons identified as R Abinesh, N Silambarasan and S Selvakumar, reports The Hindu.
In December 2020, five Dalit boys defecated in an open ground owned by a temple. Some of the dominant caste people also used the same ground to play.
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Against this backdrop, a few dominant caste youths while playing on the ground told Dalit boys to remove their excreta and handed them over with a gunny bag and spade. They allegedly used filthy words and called the boys by their caste names. They also forced the boys to do it while they resisted.
After the incident, Dalits blocked the road and staged a protest. Based on the information, the police arrived at the spot and assured them to take action against the culprits.
Following this, the agitators withdrew the protest and the mother of one of the boys gave a complaint to the police.
Based on the complaint, Maruvarthur police registered a case under sections of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015. The youths were also booked under charges of rioting, uttering obscene words in public places, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.
The police then arrested Abinesh, Silambarasan and Selvakumar.