PMK not linked to Dalit youths’ murder: Fact-finding team

“Out of the eight accused in the double murder case, only one person was the son of a AIADMK union chairman and the remaining seven were not linked to any political party. Similarly, the deceased youth also does not belong to any political party as claimed by politicians,” said Sivakami, while addressing the media, in Chennai.

Two Dalit youths, Arjun and Surya, from Soganur and Sembedu villages near Arakkonam, were murdered by a group of Vanniyar youth on the night of April 7.

VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan claimed that the murder was due to political enmity that the two youth worked for VCK candidate in the election and they also opposed sand mafia in the area.

Sivakami rubbished the claims of Thirumavalavan and said that the reason behind the murders were not political, but social issues. “Caste differences were always simmering in the region and Vanniyar youth were targeting Dalit youth. On the day of murder, a Dalit youth had called a Vanniyar youth in singular and a fight broke out between them. The dispute was taken to a Kangaroo court where Vanniyar youth murdered the Dalits,” said Sivakami, who also claimed that the Vanniyar youth in the region were involved in ganja sales and wanted to have dominance over Dalits.

Rubbishing the reports of Revenue and police officials that the Dalit youths were in an inebriated condition, she said that post-mortem reports showed that none of the two deceased had consumed alcohol. “Just because liquor bottles were found near the place of the crime, officials might have got the impression that they had consumed liquor. But, in most cases the preliminary reports of police and Revenue officials were dismissed in the court,” said Sivakami.