Madurai: The warring caste Hindu groups of Ulaipatti village near Usilampatti in Madurai district are behind the incident in which children below 10 have been accused under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Pocso) Act 2012 after an alleged skirmish between students of two schools in the village on last Friday.
The government sources claimed that the report submitted by the District Child Protection Unit (CPU) to the collector Veera Raghava Rao revealed that children did not harbour any enmity against each other. The elders from the caste Hindu community have used the children as pawns in their caste fight to teach the Dalits a lesson, sources revealed.
Police sources also confirm that caste Hindu outfits forced the parents to file a complaint against 6 Dalit children at M Kallupatti police station. "We can't attribute offence against children (under age group of 7-12) because they wouldn't have attained sufficient mental maturity to judge the nature of the consequences of their conduct on the occasion," said the police source.
"It was due to the pressure from those groups that we had booked the cases including under POCSO Act against the children and left it to the court to decide the case based on the merits," said a police officer, on condition of anonymity.
"In a way we have also become a 'victim' of Caste outfits as now the entire blame has turned towards the police," the officer added. The rural police submitted the case details to the Juvenile Justice Board at Madurai on Monday.
Meanwhile the members of Mukkulathor Puli Padai led by its senior functionary Thiraviam met his party leader Karunas, actor turned politician who was recently elected to state assembly from the Tiruvadanai constituency, at Coimbatore on Sunday and explained the incident.
"When we informed him that the Dalit children have assaulted our community children with weapons and scolded in vulgar language, he directed us to meet the parents of victims and update him," said Thiraviam. He also added that it was MPP functionary Sundramoorthy from Sedapati Union who had played a key role in taking up the issue with the police.
The legal wing of All India Forward Bloc and women wing of All India Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam have meet the parents of the caste Hindu children to express their solidarity on Monday. The members of various caste outfits have also decided to organise a protest in Madurai soon condemning the attack on children.
When DC contacted the collector Veera Raghava Rao, he said that both the rural police and the district CPU have submitted the report. "I will take appropriate steps after examining the reports," he said.
The officials from district education department also made a visit to Panchayat Union Primary School, Ulaipatti village (where the Dalit parents send their wards to study) and Hindu Primary School to bring normalcy among the children. And the members of CPU also visited the village to provide counselling for the children.
