A gruesome murder ~ extremely harsh and hard to
digest – but not too many voices of protest…… very sad to read about this…. Brahmins,
Hindus, Believers have long been subjected to lot of ridicule and targeted on
the roads and other public places… sad plight indeed.
A Brahmin Priest, an
aged person – 63 years of age.. killed ~
reason : he objected to the harassment of his daughter by goons………………. Here is something based on two reports that
appeared in The Hindu, one of which portrays that the Investigating agency
stating that the girl better should not have objected and should have left the
incident – can you blame the victim for standing up against the harassment and
eventual killing….. despicable indeed. The
goons involved must be booked and punished in harsh manner that the horrendous
crime deserves…….
Here is what appeared in the Hindu….
Distraught
but defiant, 25-year-old daughter of priest, who was brutally murdered last
week in Kancheepuram, continues fight for justice; four accused have
surrendered, one absconding
A week
after her father was beaten to death and she, brutally dragged along the road
opposite her sister’s home, abused and assaulted, Padmasree Raman from
Tirupati, is distraught but not willing to give up on seeking justice. “I came
here to perform the annual rites for my mother but ended up cremating my
father,” said the 25-year-old M.Com graduate, who works as an auditor in
Tirupati.
Sitting
on the verandah of her sister Jayashree’s home in Sannidhi Street Agraharam in
Venkatapuram surrounded by her relatives, she recalled the horrific murder of
her father, V.T. Raman, a 63-year-old priest in one of the Tirumala temples. Mr.
Raman had come to the house of his older daughter Jayashree two weeks ago,
along with his younger daughter, Padmasree, for a ritual for his late wife,
Amrithavalli, who was also from the agraharam. Jayashree’s husband and other
members of the family run a catering business here.
Abused,
attacked : On March 31, a day before they were supposed to return to
Tirupati, Padmasree and her father decided to take six-year-old, Akshaya,
Jayashree’s daughter, to the shop on the main road to buy her a chocolate. As
they were walking down the road, one of three men who were walking towards
them, tried to frighten the child with a loud shout.
“Akshaya
clung to me in fear. When they did it again, I asked them why they were trying
to scare the child,” said Padmasree. “They then began abusing me, calling me
all sorts of humiliating names. When I asked them to stop, one of them rushed
towards me and struck me on the head with a steel rod. I also remember him
dragging me by my hair as I fell down. I started bleeding profusely and my
clothes were torn and soiled with blood,” she added.
The
drunken gang did not stop with that. When a horrified Raman, who was hard of
hearing, frantically tried to save his daughter, one of them struck him on his
head. “The injury was so grave that his brain was damaged. He survived for
barely twenty-four hours after the attack,” Padmasree said. Padmasree had to
have eight stitches on her head. The three men escaped on two motorcycles
immediately after the incident.
One of
the family’s relatives helped the police identify the main offender, Muniraj,
as he had spotted him trying to escape. While four of those involved, including
the two men on the bikes, surrendered in Tambaram and Tindivanam courts last
week, the police managed to nab Muniraj. One of the offenders, Vinod, is
absconding.
“We are
looking for him and he will be nabbed soon,” said a senior police office at the
Palur police station.
‘Always
helpful’: “My father was a very soft-spoken man. Even after he retired
from the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation, he insisted on taking up
an honorary post as a priest. He always wanted to help people. And he certainly
did not deserve this brutal death,” Padmasree said. “People here
have been telling me they will help me with money and support me. But I want
the murderers to be brought to book. I also want my relatives to be safe here
after I leave for Tiupati,” she said. “We are not strangers to this place. We
used to come here every year as all my mother’s relatives live here,” she
added.
Her
grandmother said, “Our ancestors have been living here for more than ninety
years. We are just seven families now in the agraharam but there were over 30
families earlier. There has never been such a problem, as most of us,
especially women don’t venture out alone. We have complained many times that
drunkards leave broken bottles and ganja packets here, but no action has been
taken.”
Akshaya,
her parents said, is yet to recover from the shock. It was Akshaya who ran back
home and told her relatives what had happened on that day. Only then, were the
victims rushed to the government hospital in Chengalpattu. “She came running to
me, crying that ‘they hit thaatha and chithi,” her mother Jayashree recalled.
“Her exams were going on when this incident occurred. Even now, she is so
terrified that she wants to keep the doors locked all the time. She does not
want any of us to leave the house and keeps insisting that everyone shifts to
‘paati’s home’,” Jayashree added.
Below is the other report : A flurry of activity accompanies a reference
to the ‘pujari’ case at the Palur police station, almost 50 km from Chennai. Files are brought in and details swiftly read out.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer tries to de-mystify the crime.
“The
essence of it is, you don’t bark at dogs. The woman should have just ignored
the behaviour of the drunken men. She argued with them when they tried to scare
her niece and abused her. Had she calmly walked past, her father would have
been alive today,” he said. He is talking about Padmasree, daughter of V.T.
Raman, who was murdered by a drunken gang.
“Can’t I
even question somebody who is trying to trouble my niece? Couldn’t they have
just pushed off? Why did they have to kill my father?” asked a tearful
Padmasree.
“We have
booked them in several cases — including an attempt to murder and for
harassment of women. It was an unfortunate event,” said another officer. “The
woman, Padmasree, was fair and pretty, an M.Com graduate who seemed sensible.
But she did not use her common sense. She was new to this place. What was the
need to argue with the men?” he asked. When asked about other harassment or
abuse complaints, he said very few were reported.
Almost
25 villages come under the jurisdiction of the Palur police station of which 13
are certified as mother villages because of their size. Since the villages are
quite far from the police station, most disputes are sorted out with the
village head. “The problem of history-sheeters here has increased over the last
few years. Some of them go about with steel rods, in groups and everyone is
scared of them,” said Thilakan, another resident of Venkatapuram.
Houses
and residential colonies are interspersed with acres of paddy fields. “One has
to walk for at least 3 km to reach the main road. It is very risky for women.
Hardly any women walk alone on the streets. Only the women who own liquor shops
work here after six,” said Saroja, another resident who works at a bank in
Chengalpattu. “Illegal country liquor is quite a problem here. People often get
drunk and create a ruckus. Since there are no patrols by policemen, they never
get caught,” she added. The Palur police said they had managed to nab several
history-sheeters in the last few days. T. Natarajan, a sub-inspector, said
special teams have been formed to curb the menace.
Many
residents were eager to support the bereaved family. “We feel very sympathetic
towards the family. We will make sure we collect enough money to help
them. I feel sorry for the young woman, as she is just 25, unmarried and has
lost her father,” said R. Kumaranayagan, a shop owner in the locality. Raman’s
family says violence is endemic to the area. “They could have even just
shoved him and left it at that. They need not have killed him,” a relative
said. The only person to remain defiant is Padmasree. “Everyone is talking
to me about financial support and my marriage but not about punishing the
wrong-doers. I want them to be punished for what they did to my father,” she
said.
