It has been over a month since Sivaprasad, an elderly gentleman who was on his way back to home after the routine morning walk, was hacked to death in Varkala.
Police arrested a few activists of Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM) in connection with the murder. The brutal murder with apparently no provocation shocked the beach township, where tourism season is just about to start.
Even after a month the issue refuses to die down. Curiously, it is not the slain man’s friends or relatives who are making the protests. In fact, they have been maintaining a mature and civilized profile amidst all the troubles happening around them. Still, miscreants refuse to stop haunting them.
Yesterday, when Saraswathi, Sivaprasad’s widow, went to clean the place where her husband’s body was buried, she was in for a shock. Somebody has drawn a kolam (line drawing made using flour, commonly found in Tamil Nadu) there. The kolam showed a head and a headless body lying separately. She informed the relatives and the police. The police have started investigation.
Meanwhile, a fact-finding team floated by PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) and headed by BRP Bhaskar, a well-known journalist, conducted an enquiry yesterday about the murder and related incidents, and it led to further chaos. The fifteen-member enquiry team received a hostile welcome from Shivasena activists in the area. The Shivasena activists alleged that the investigation team tries to protect the real criminals. They also alleged that some of the members of the team are DHRM activists. According to them, Saritha, wife of the arrested DHRM leader Cherunniyoor Das, and Sudhi, one of the accused in the Sivaprasad murder case, were in the team.
BRP Bhaskar and other members of the team denied this allegation. They claimed that Shivasena activists attacked the enquiry team with the silent nod of the police officials. (Read BRP Bhaskar's report here and watch a video here)
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Police has recovered a packet a flour-like substance believed to have been used for drawing the gory kolam on the site of burial of Sivaprasad from a nearby house. Only a person, who reportedly has mental problems, lives in that house.
The specimen taken from the kolam and the recovered substance have been sent for forensic analysis. Initial reports suggest that the specimen taken from was not taken properly, as it was mixed unrecognizably with soil.