Some lives are less valuable for cops

CHENNAI: Men being killed and women raped by the men in khaki are common in movies, but not in real life, right? Wrong, if you are talking about Dalit or tribal women, argue activists.In November last year, the Thirukovilur police allegedly arrested the husbands of Leela (28) and Kavitha (18) and the fathers of Veena (20) and Reshmi (17) as suspects in a theft case. They all belong to the Irular community and live in T-Mandapam Village, Villupuram district.On November 22, while the men were in police custody, five constables from the Thirukovilur police station allegedly came to the village, picked these women up, forced them into a police jeep and took them away. The woman claimed that while they were passing a eucalyptus forest, the police asked them to get into the forest and then they raped them. Despite filing a petition, with the help of an NGO, the accused were not arrested, nor were their names included in the FIR. They were simply suspended for a brief period of time.In another appalling case, when `2.72 crore was stolen from a cooperative bank in Tirunavalur on May 23 last year, Ravi (30) from Kuravar community, who lives in Thandavankuppam, Cuddalore, was allegedly picked up with several others on the pretext of being suspects.His wife, Kasthuri, said, “That night the police came and took my husband away without giving any reason. Two days later, they came again, hit me badly and forced me to put my signature on a blank paper. Sometime later they delivered my husband’s dead body. I have four children and till today I have not received any compensation.”In a similar case, Muthu (34) from Cuddalore, was also found dead in his cell. No custody memo or arrest memo has ever been produced. Nor are there records of him being produced before a magistrate. His postmortem was not videographed.Muthu, who was working for a private company in Chennai, was arrested as a suspect for robbing the Bhima Jewellery store. The police took him to Cuddalore and on the way he was allegedly tortured. He was then taken to the Virugambakkam police station, where he was found dead the following day around 4.30 pm.