Mannargudi: A Dalit man in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvarur district was allegedly beaten, urinated upon and even forced to eat human faeces by three men. The incident came to light recently although it took place on April 28.

The man was returning home from work late one night, when the three non Dalit men allegedly physically assaulted him. The man said that he was kicked and dragged for 15 minutes before the trio force-fed human faeces and urinated on him.

The trio allegedly fled from the scene when they realised another man, Pakkirisamy was approaching. Pakkirisamy found the injured man lying on the ground and rushed him to a hospital with the help of a relative named Kumar.

Kumar then reached the Kottur police station to file a complaint. Kumar alleged that he had to stage a protest for the police to take him seriously enough to file a complaint. Kumar told reporters that the Dalit man was beaten allegedly over a three-year-old enmity.

The Dalits allegedly participated in the Ayyanar temple festival, much to the dislike of non Dalits. Kumar believes that this was the cause of the attack on the man.

Police arrested two of the three accused and they were remanded in judicial custody.

A case was registered under Sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 294 b (uttering obscene words in a public place), 352 (using criminal force to any person otherwise than on grave and sudden provocation) and 506 (2) (an offence of criminal intimidation under the IPC).

The men were also booked under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, including Section 3(1)(r) (intentionally insulting or intimidating with intent to humiliate a member of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe by caste name in any place within public view) and 3(1)(s) (abusing any member of a Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe by caste name in any place within public view).

Interestingly, reports suggest that section 3(1)(a) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (Punishments for offences atrocities) which refers to an act where one ‘puts any inedible or obnoxious substance into the mouth of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or forces such member to drink or eat such inedible or obnoxious substance’ was not included by the police.