In a verdict that should have sent shockwaves through Tamil Nadu’s public consciousness, the Supreme Court acquitted S. Dashwanth in the 2017 rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl. The judgment was not a declaration of innocence, but a damning indictment of a police investigation so shoddy, so fraudulent, and so procedurally vile that it forced the highest court to let a man, once sentenced to death for a heinous crime, walk free.
Yet, across Tamil Nadu, the response from the dominant Dravidianist media machinery has been a pin-drop silence. Not the silence of shock, but the silence of complicity.
While the news wires carried the bare bones of the acquittal, major media houses like Thanthi TV, News18 Tamil Nadu, and Sun News treated it as a passing item – a short news byte or a static news card to be scrolled past. Worse, DMK mouthpiece Kalaignar News didn’t even think it was newsworthy and completely blacked out the news.
#Breaking | தூக்கு தண்டனை ரத்து – விடுதலை
2017ம் ஆண்டு தமிழகத்தை உலுக்கிய சிறுமி பாலியல் வன்கொடுமை வழக்கு
6 வயது சிறுமியை பாலியல் வன்கொடுமை செய்து கொலை செய்த வழக்கில் தூக்கு தண்டனையை ரத்து செய்ததுடன் தஷ்வந்தை விடுதலை செய்து உச்சநீதிமன்றம் உத்தரவு
பாலியல் வன்கொடுமை வழக்கில்… pic.twitter.com/9opibc4gRX
— Thanthi TV (@ThanthiTV) October 8, 2025
#BREAKING | 6 வயது சிறுமி வன்கொடுமை செய்து கொலை செய்த வழக்கில் இருந்து குற்றவாளி தஷ்வந்த் விடுதலை#SunNews | #Dhashvanth | #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/y99x9IpexU
— Sun News (@sunnewstamil) October 8, 2025
#BREAKING | தஷ்வந்தை உடனே விடுவிக்க உத்தரவு#SupremeCourt | #Daswant | #Capitalpunishment | #Chennai pic.twitter.com/ejrcJGFsut
— PttvOnlinenews (@PttvNewsX) October 8, 2025
2017ஆம் ஆண்டு சென்னை போரூர் அருகே
6 வயது சிறுமியை பாலியல் வன்கொடுமைக்கு உள்ளாக்கி கொலை செய்த வழக்கில் தஷ்வந்துக்கு
வழங்கப்பட்ட தூக்கு தண்டனை ரத்து #Dhaswanth #News18Tamilnadu | https://t.co/3v5L32pLWJ pic.twitter.com/jfwRA4mMWj— News18 Tamil Nadu (@News18TamilNadu) October 8, 2025
There were no prime-time debates, no hard-hitting panels, no relentless questioning of the Home Department, and no demand for accountability from a police force whose “Dravidian Model” has been exposed as a model of catastrophic failure.
Where Are the Crusaders?
Where is the fiery outrage from ‘journalists’ like Karthigaiselvan or Niranjan Kumar or Nelson Xavier who would jump up and down had the same been done to a case in UP or a BJP-ruled state? They would conduct debate after debate and flog a dead horse even if the issue was irrelevant. These journalists, often vocal on politically convenient issues, have suddenly lost their voice when it matters most. Their silence is a betrayal of the fourth estate’s fundamental duty: to speak truth to power and to be a voice for the voiceless.
A little girl was brutally raped and murdered. Her family has been denied justice not because of a lack of evidence, but because of a police force that allegedly fabricated evidence, manipulated witnesses, and violated every tenet of a fair investigation and trial. This is not just a legal failure; it is a monumental governance failure. It reveals a law-and-order machinery so incompetent or so corrupt that it cannot secure a conviction even in a case with a charred body of a child. And yet, the media, which styles itself as the guardian of the people, looks the other way.
Selective Outrage and Political Servility
This deafening silence is not accidental. It is symptomatic of a media ecosystem that thrives on selective outrage. The same channels that will run week-long debates on minor political slights or orchestrated controversies cannot muster the courage to question their political masters over a collapse of the criminal justice system.
To question the police is to question the government that controls it. And for the Dravidianist media, that is a red line they dare not cross. The pursuit of truth has been sacrificed at the altar of political servility.
The acquittal of Dashwanth is not an isolated incident. He was also acquitted in the murder of his own mother, with sources indicating the evidence was too weak to pursue. This points to a pattern of ineptitude that should be the biggest story in the state. Instead, it is being swept under the rug.
The message this silence sends is that, if you are a victim of a gruesome crime in Tamil Nadu, not only might the police fail you, but the media will too. They will not fight for you. They will not hold the powerful accountable. They will simply look away.
The Supreme Court did its job by upholding the law, even when it meant setting a potentially dangerous man free due to the state’s incompetence. It is now the media’s job to do its duty – to scream from the rooftops about this failure, to demand answers, and to ensure that such a travesty of justice never happens again. But if their current silence is anything to go by, the people of Tamil Nadu should not hold their breath. The Dravidianist media has spoken, not with words, but with a cowardice that echoes louder than any headline.
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