The Hindu : Kerala News : Protest mounting over failure to book accused in rape case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 20, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Protest mounting over failure to book accused in rape case

Staff Reporter

Increasing incidents of atrocities against tribal women in Attappady

ATTAPPADY (PALAKKAD): Protest is mounting over the failure of the police to arrest the accused in the alleged rape and murder of Maruthy (35), a tribal woman of Padavayal in Attappady, two weeks ago.

The police have so far questioned three suspects, but have not arrested anybody. The post-mortem report has found 142 injuries in her body.

Deputy Superintendent of Police V. Chandran, head of the Special Mobile Squad set up to inquire into atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Agali police sub-division, said they had questioned three persons suspected to be involved in the crime. But no arrest has been, as there is no definite evidence of their involvement.

Women activists, including poetess Sugathakumari, Kerala Mahila Sanghom president Meenakshi Thampan and Anweshi president K. Ajitha, have visited the victim's house and demanded that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy take steps to book the culprits.

Ms. Sugathakumari told The Hindu that she had drawn the Chief Minister's attention to the increasing incidents of murder and rape, particularly of tribal women, in Attappady. Inaction against such crimes has resulted in its alarming increase, she said.

The CPI(ML) Red Flag had taken out a march to the Agali police station last week demanding action on the issue. CPI(ML) Red Flag area secretary M. Sukumaran said party activists would march to the headquarters of the Attappady Hill Area Development Society (AHADS) during its governing body meeting on June 24, demanding action against incidents of rape and murder of tribal women. The party has put up a board specifying the number of rape cases in Agali town.

Ms. Ajitha, who visited Attappady on Saturday, alleged that most of these cases had not been registered by the police. They have been closed as `suicide or unproved cases.' A fact-finding commission of women's organisations will hold a sitting in Attappady next month to inquire into these incidents, she said.

Majority of these murders are alleged to have taken place in the Agali police station limits, in Pudur, Palur and Chavadiyur in Pudur panchayat. Rape and murder of tribal women has been reported from Sholayur panchayat also. The tribals and mass organisations had brought the matter before the Madhava Menon Commission appointed by the State Government to study the problems of tribes in Attappady, during its sitting in Agali last week. They told the Commission that Attappady had become unsafe for tribal women.

Though Attappady was declared a liquor-free zone by the Government in 1996, illicit liquor brewing and ganja cultivation is rampant in the area. Large tracts of forests are destroyed to cultivate the killer plant. Not only have the Government agencies failed to check these activities, some of them have also given tacit support to these `mafia gangs' to operate freely in Attappady, she said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala