TN: Dalit youth lynched to death in Villupuram, family allege caste motive behind violence

A 24-year-old man was killed by a mob allegedly over suspicions that he "flashed" at a woman on February 12 near Villupuram. The victim, identified as Sakthivel, was reportedly a Dalit youth who worked at a petrol pump in Gingee village, Tamil Nadu. It was discovered during an investigation later that he was lynched by a mob of people when he squatted down by the road to defecate.

The mob which consisted of 4 men and 3 women, one of whom alleged that Sakthivel displayed inappropriate behaviour towards them, raised an alarm calling for help. Soon a mob of villagers including the woman's husband attacked him. They tied him up to a tree and repeatedly hit him.

Dalit man lynched to death in Tamil Nadu

Sakthivel's family, however, suspect that he was assaulted because he was a Dalit. 'My brother was tied up and his Aadhaar card was checked. When they found out that he belonged to the SC Adi Dravida community, they tied his mouth and hit him with a banana tree trunk', alleged his sister.

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The mob then reportedly called the victim's sister, Theivanai, from his phone and asked her to come and pick him up. She narrated the ordeal to the investigating officers. His sister, after pleading with the mob to let him go was eventually allowed to go along with her brother, after the police who arrived at the scene of the crime, reportedly two hours after the torture began.

Theivanai, along with the help of a few others from the village managed to get Sakthivel to sit on a bike and take him home. Theivanai, speaking to a local media said,

'We wanted to take some money before going to the hospital, but when we reached home, Sakthivel dropped on the ground unconscious.'

Later, the doctors at a local hospital confirmed that he had been brought dead.

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Shocking video of torture circulated on social media

The incident was reportedly filmed and circulated on social media soon after Sakthivel was declared dead by doctors when he was taken to a local hospital, following the attack. The case is currently being investigated and 7 people involved in the brutal torture have been identified and arrested.

The mob which primarily belonged to the Vanniyar community are part of the Most Backward Caste (MBC), which falls under the Over Backward Caste (OBC) category in Tamil Nadu. Touted as a dominant and socially powerful community in northern Tamil Nadu, incidents such as this one are not isolated. 

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The investigating officer, SP D Jayakumar stated that 'Only a detailed probe can reveal if there was a caste angle to the murder. He seems to have died of a heart attack due to severe torture. A case has been registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with IPC Section 302 (punishment for murder)", Jayakumar said.

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