Dalit engineer's murder: NCSC seeks stringent action

Terming the recent murder of a Dalit engineer in Tamil Nadu as a "caste-related violence", National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) today said it cannot be brushed aside as a murder and demanded action under stringent legal provisions.
NCSC Chairman P L Punia said that the death of Dalit engineer Gokulraj in Namakkal last week was a "serious case".
"It is a serious case. Stringent action must be taken... it cannot be brushed aside as a murder," Punia told reporters here after chairing a review meeting with state government officials.
He said action under legal provisions like section 302 of the IPC (murder) or others under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) alone would not suffice but others like Goondas Act or state-specific strong laws should also be invoked against the culprits.

"It is caste-related violence which could spread. The state government should stop it," he said, hoping that the police could come up with some intelligence gathering mechanism to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
The death of Gokularaj, whose body was found on the railway track near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district on June 27, had triggered protests from his family who had alleged it was a honour killing.

A love affair with another caste girl was suspected to be the reason for his murder, in which six persons have been arrested.
To a question on the status of SCs in the state, Punia said the "overall situation is unsatisfactory" and listed out growing instances of alleged atrocities on the community members, including rape and murder, in the past five years.

When asked whether NCSC was satisfied with the report given by IIT-Madras over the derecognition episode or a students' circle for allegedly criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he replied in the affirmative and said the matter was treated "as closed".
The institute had been warned to "be careful" in the future regarding such matters, he added.
IIT, Madras, officials had appeared before NCSC earlier after it had issued a notice to them.