DHARMAPURI: Humiliation at its worst. That’s how one would best describe the ignominious suffering undergone by Perumal (now aged around 70), the ‘Oor Gounder’ (chieftain) of the Vachathi village while he was in the custody of forest personnel on the night of June 20, 1992.Perumal was among the four men taken into custody by forest guards on the charge of concealing sandalwood cut from the Sitheri Hills and housed at the Harur Forest Range Office.At the Range Office, where over 90 tribal womenfolk from Vachathi were also housed, he was allegedly stripped up to his waist and beaten with logs and bamboo. Just as he had collapsed, some perverse forest officers decided to subject him and the women to a tortuous ordeal. Most of the women housed there were his relatives including his wife and nieces.“We were given broom sticks, asked to hold it upside down and ordered to beat my uncle (Chitthapa), who had already collapsed on the ground unable to withstand the physical torture of the khaki officers. When we refused we were lashed with a lathi from behind. We had to succumb to the demands of the forest guards and began beating him with the broom sticks. It was such a painful sight to see our revered Oor Gounder being beaten with brooms by so many women who respected him,” says Karupayee (name changed as she is also one of the rape victims).”According to one of the women, “we were asked to strip his trousers but we told the forest guards that ‘do what you want to do with us but we can’t do this to him.’ However, we had to carry out orders to lash him with broom sticks.” Perumal’s wife Kuppu and daughter were witness to the incident.“It is nearly 20 years since we suffered but it appears as if all this was enacted in front of our eyes just one or two years ago. I was unable to see my husband being beaten by his own relatives. I just put my head down on the floor and lay there hoping that I would not be thrust with a broom in my hand,” says Kuppu.The women were assembled in three rows at the forest range office. “Mercifully, I was seated in the third row and only the women in the other two rows were given the brooms,” she adds.Perumal seethes in anger while recalling the humiliation. “I pray to Mariamman and curse that all those forest guards and policemen should undergo the same kind of suffering and humiliation which me and my fellow villagers had undergone at their hands. They will not lead an able-bodied life. God will punish them for what they had done,” he says repeatedly.“We saw our children falling on the ground and being beaten. Do you think those who unleashed this will lead a good life,” he asks.The forest guards had allegedly held him responsible for the frequent admonishment they received from their superiors over the continuing sandalwood smuggling in Vachathi those days.However, Perumal claims that the raid in Vachathi was caused over a jurisdictional fight between two forest rangers who were allegedly involved in sandalwood smuggling.
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