On May 15, Ramkumar a young graduate belonging to the Scheduled Caste community and a youth wing leader of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK)’s Tiruvannamalai unit was verbally and physically abused by the DMK’s panchayat union leader Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi and his brother Parthasarathy had hurled casteist slurs at Ramkumar and his mother and also beat them with slippers.
Karunanidhi is reported to have said ““How dare you raise your voice and speak against me? [We] should have thrown you guys outside the village a long time back. Since that wasn’t done, you got enough courage to speak up against us is it?”
Ramkumar is later said to have reported the incident at Thachampattu Police Station where his complaint was initially rejected. After a long hiatus, an FIR was registered. Later, Thachampattu Block Councillor Ramanan of the DMK had threatened Ramkumar to withdraw the case.
AIADMK Spokesperson and Vellore Zone IT head has shared on his timeline a testimony of Ramkumar. Here is the English transcript of Ramkumar’s testimony. The video is attached at the end of the article.
“Vanakkam! My name is Mu. Ka. Ramkumar. I am the head of the Dravidar Kazhagam’s student wing unit in Tiruvannamali district. I have done my B.Sc. Biochemistry. I run a lab near Nallorpalayam. On May 15, there happened an incident. Parayampatti panchyat union leader Karunanidhi beat me with slippers. He also hurled casteist slurs at me. It doesn’t seem like a one person attack.. It looks like the entire family was behind it. Prior to this incident, I was attacked when I had gone to relieve myself nearby his fields. I was verbally abused then too. When I had informed this incident to my dad, he too was beaten with slippers. We had filed a case then too. However, we withdrew the case upon his request and also considering that he is a veteran. Now, this is the second time this abuse and attack has happened to me. This is totally condemnable. I belong to the DK and he to the DK’s companion party DMK. However, it is evident that he has a casteist and oppressive mindset. The most important point to note here is that his entire family is behind in attacking us. His brother’s son had claimed that he had been waiting for an opportunity to attack me and take me down. It shows that were expecting me to get into a small trouble to attack me. It pains to see such men in a rationalist party like DMK.”