Sulawadi temple prasada tragedy being treated as a case of atrocity by local police

Mysuru: The Sulawadi temple tragedy in Chamarajanagar is not only being treated as a criminal act by the police , but also as a case of atrocity as 10 of the 17, who died and 67 of the 105, who fell ill after eating the poisoned prasada belong to the scheduled caste and three others are from a scheduled tribe.

Superintendent of Police, Chamarajnagar, Dharmender Kumar Meena, says cases have been slapped on the  accused in the December 14 Kichguth Maramma temple tragedy under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 in addition to other sections of the criminal law.

Chamarajnagar Deputy Commissioner, B B Cauvery has now sent a proposal to the state government to pay an ex gratia of Rs 8 lakh each to the families of the 10 scheduled caste devotees, who died in the incident. The state government has already approved the grant of Rs 2 lakh to each of these families under the Ambedkar Development Corporation and Rs 1 lakh each from the Backward Classes Welfare Department.

While it has paid compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to families of all the 17 dead,  with Chamarajnagar MP, R Druvanarayan drawing attention to the temple tragedy in Parliament, the Union government too has agreed to provide a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each of the families. It has now been suggested that it should also give Rs 50,000 each to the 80, who fell seriously ill and had to be treated in the ICU after eating the prasada.