The Special Court for SC/ST (POA) Act in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, delivered a judgment on 2 August 2021 in the case of a Dalit youth and a 22-year-old Vanniyar (OBC) woman who were allegedly forced to consume poison after they married against family opposition. Regrets Valjibhai Patel, noted veteran Dalit rights leader from Gujarat (photo), not enough effort has been made to bring the judgment’s positive implications to light. According to Patel, the verdict — one death sentence and 14 life terms, including for police personnel — is a landmark “rarest of rare” atrocity case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sends a message that Dalit lives matter and that collusion and cover-up will not be shielded. The judgment was delivered by Judge Thiru S. Uthamaraj in Case No. CRMLP/503/2021 (CNR No. TNCD/210005242021).
According to the case account compiled by Patel, the victims were S. Murugesan, a Dalit youth from Krishnatham village in Cuddalore district, and D. Kazhagi, a 22-year-old Vanniyar (OBC) woman. Both were students at Annamalai University. They fell in love and married, but the woman’s family opposed the relationship. Her father was a police sub-inspector.
According to the account, the youth hid the woman at a relative’s house and went into hiding elsewhere, but they were later caught. The woman’s relatives allegedly forced both of them to drink poison, killing them.
Ultimately, the woman’s uncle was sentenced to death, while 14 others, including a PSI and a PI, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the atrocity case. The case has been described as the first of its kind in India under the Atrocities Act in which such a “rarest of rare” sentence was delivered.
Yet, according to Patel, the full judgment has still not been uploaded on the court’s website; only the case title was posted, according to the account.
Patel welcomed the verdict but said its significance has not been adequately highlighted. “This is a historic judgment. For the first time in India, an atrocity case has been treated as rarest of rare. The court has not only punished the killers but also the police officers who allegedly failed the victims. It sends a message that Dalit lives matter and that collusion and cover-up will not be shielded,” Patel said.
“It took 18 years and repeated High Court interventions. That delay is a warning about how hard the system resists justice — but the outcome is a victory for persistence and for Dalit rights. Not enough effort has been made to bring the positive implications of this judgment to light,” he added.
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