HC orders police protection to inter-caste couple

Madras High Court today ordered police protection to an inter-caste couple and their family members, against whom a local kangaroo court had issued an order of excommunication.
Passing interim orders on a petition by Dalit girl R Sudha, who married a man from Vanniyar community at Kaadaiyampatti village in Dharmapuri district, Justice K K Sasidharan directed the district SP to ensure that she lived peacefully without any threat or attack from the villagers and the protection should be a meaningful one.
"The contents of the petition projects a sorry state of affairs in Tamil Nadu and particularly in the Dharmapuri district," the Judge observed.

Recording the submission made by the government pleader that police protection has already been given to Sudha's family, the judge further directed the SP to ensure that her family was permitted to take water and use other common amenities without any problem.
He also ordered issuance of notice to villagers, who conducted kangaroo court, returnable by August 19.
Sudha got married in April 2010 and had been living with her child and in-laws at Kaadaiyampatti village.
Following the recent mysterious death of Ilavarasan,a Dalit youth who was found dead along the railway track in Dharmapuri on July 4, after his wife Divya, a Vanniyar girl, chose to live with her mother in the backdrop of suicide of her father and anti-Dalit violence triggered by their marriage, members of the Vanniyar community boycotted Sudha and her family.

She was forced to leave the village, Sudha said in her petition.