Condemning the killing of the Dalit woman, residents of Elango Nagar here staged a day-long dharna in their hamlet on Saturday besides threatening to boycott the May 16 Assembly poll.
After S. Viswanathan, a Dalit youth from Elango Nagar in Vannarpet under Palayamkottai police station limits, married a Caste Hindu girl Kaveri of Thatchanallur and left for an undisclosed destination recently, the girl’s father Sankar alias Sankaranarayanan allegedly issued death threats to the youth’s family members whenever he came to Viswanathan’s house in search of the couple.
When he came on Friday, Sankar hacked Viswanathan’s sister Kalpana to death and surrendered along with his wife Chellammal on Friday night.
Condemning the murder and demanding compensation and employment to one of the family members of the deceased, residents of Elango Nagar staged a dharna in their hamlet on Saturday. The protestors said the police failed to act on the petition submitted by Shanmugam, father of Viswanathan, seeking protection to his family from Sankar as he was issuing death threats. They also said the police should give protection to Viswanathan and Kaveri.
“If our demands are not accepted, we’ll not receive Kalpana’s body and boycott the Assembly polls,” the villagers said.
When Revenue Divisional Officer, Tirunelveli, P. Fermi Vidhya came to Elango Nagar and held talks with the protesting villagers, they refused to accept the officer’s assurance and she left the spot.
Meanwhile, post-mortem was conducted at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital on Saturday and the police continued to persuade the family members to accept the body with the assurance that they would provide due protection to Viswanathan and Kaveri.
