Naveena was just another 17 year old girl with ambitions. Her father Angappan was a daily wage worker while her mother was a homemaker. They lived in a village called V. Palayam near Vizhupuram town in Tamil Nadu. Chirpy and talkative that she was said to be, Naveena dreamed of becoming a nurse so that she could serve people. But she ended up as a burnt corpse. She was harassed by Senthil, a Dalit man, who had made advances on her despite she rejecting him on his face.
Naveena who was studying in class 12 then, went to school in a bus operated by a private transport service. Senthil belonging to Indira Nagar was the driver of this bus. He started stalking Naveena and pursued her. At one point, Senthil’s moves breached limits and became a nuisance in Naveena’s life. He had even come to Naveena’s house and created ruckus. She later with her parents filed a complaint against her stalker at the Vizhupuram West police station who was arrested and later released on bail.
But even after that, Naveena continued to be harassed. She stopped halfway through class 12 and discontinued her studies owing to her own safety and to stay away from Senthil.
Senthil uses the Dalit card to his advantage
Meanwhile Senthil was found on railway tracks with his one hand and one leg severed. After taking treatment at a hospital for a few weeks he complained at the office of Vizhupuram Superintendent of Police saying that Naveena’s parents and relatives had sent armed men to hack him to death.
Naveena belongs to the Vanniyar community. The Vanniyars and Dalits have always been at loggerheads with each other as the latter is accused of targeting and wooing young girls from the Vanniyar community, and eloping with them to cities only to be abused or abandoned later. In the year 2014, the Madras High Court unearthed a burgeoning ‘fake marriage cartel’ in which marriages were registered even if the bride and groom were not present. More than 3500 such fake marriages were exposed from just two registrar offices -Royapuram and Chennai North.
Coming back to Senthil’s story, investigations done by the police and fact finding team by A Marx and Sukumaran found that Senthil had got drunk and lied down on the railway track when a train hit him. He had lost his one hand and leg in this accident brought upon by himself in order to make it look like a Dalit falling victim to the ‘oppression’ of Vanniyars.
Enter Gunasekaran and ilk
News 18 Tamil Nadu and other mainstream Tamil News channels sensationalized this issue by spinning a narrative that portrayed Senthil as a victim of caste violence. “Doesn’t a Dalit have a right to love a 17 year old girl?” were the levels to which the debates stooped with Senthil being hailed as a hero. Dravidian outfits like Dravida Kazhagam and Dalit parties like VCK parroted along and started their usual rhetorics.
Even before the investigations revealed Senthil’s false claims, News 18 Tamil Nadu’s Senior Editor Mu. Gunasekaran conducted debates based on the false premise that Senthil was the victim.
That tragic day
On 29th July 2016, Senthil had waited outside Naveena’s house with a can of petrol for her parents to leave. He was also drunk that day. He had forced her to marry him and threatened to set her on fire if she didn’t agree. Later, he poured petrol on himself and Naveena, doused himself on fire and grabbed hold of her, burning her too. Senthil was charred to death on the spot while Naveena succumbed to severe burns at the JIPMER hospital a few days later on August 3.
Till today, Naveena’s parents, relatives and the people of the village blame the mainstream Tamil news channels especially News 18 Tamil Nadu Gunasekaran and his compatriots in Puthiyathalaimurai and other news channels, for falsely peddling a narrative that killed Naveena. From the beginning, they had given a caste/Dalit victim spin to the entire issue without investigating the truth. Even after the truth came to light, these news channels and political outfits kept their mouths zipped and went on about their usual business. They had even taken down the debates conducted on these topics from Youtube and other social media.
Gunasekaran later absolved himself of the crime by conveying a condolence message through a ‘facebook post’.
In their quest for narratives, an innocent life was lost.
Gunasekaran later got Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award.
Naveena is yet to get justice.
