Cauvery Basin2

Tamil Research Institution (TRI)
Venkatesan and Velayudham and Sivalingam from Alamarathuvalavu also left saying that
they were going to Pondicherry for work.
On 07.04.2015 at about 8.00 AM, Balachandran’s younger brother Prabhakaran
came to our house and said that his father Harikrishnan, one Pazhani who had taken them
and the others who had gone with him had been arrested by the Andhra Police. He then left
saying that he would make arrangements to get our people released.
Then the next day, i.e. 08.04.2015, at about 08.00 AM, Prabhakaran came to our
house again and said that Anburaj, a policeman from our village, had told him that the
Andhra Police had shot dead the persons who had gone from our village. He also said, “It
seems that the names of the persons who went from our village, including your husband
Sivakumar are mentioned in the newspaper. I am going to Arur Main Road to see what the
matter is.” My husband’s elder brother Jayshankar also went along with him.
Later that evening at about 4.00 PM the DSP of Arur, the Village Administrative
Officer and the RDO asked us - 2 persons each for every deceased person – to come with
Voter’s ID and Ration Card so that we could go to Tirupati to bring the bodies. My husband’s
elder brother went with them and they reached the Govt. Hospital in Lower Tirupati at about
12.00 in the night. There, the District Collector of Tiruvallur District was apparently seated
under a Shamiana erected near the post-mortem room.
Our people introduced themselves to him. He seems to have shown them some
photographs that he had with him. When my husband’s elder brother looked at the
photograph of my husband which was among them, he saw that my husband’s body had
marks that appeared like burns and there were welts too. There were injuries on his back too
indicating that he was beaten with batons. His lower jaw was torn. At about 1.00 AM my
husband’s elder brother Jayshankar was taken to see my husband’s body on which postmortem
had already been performed.
Then they left from there with my husband’s body in an ambulance that had come
from Tamil Nadu. Jayshankar told me that the ambulance was followed by a Jeep in which
the officials and police who had come from Tamil Nadu were travelling.
The following day, 09.04.2015, at about 11.00 AM they brought my husband’s body
to our village. His body was zipped-up in a plastic cover. When I went closer to his body I
saw that his mouth was torn and teeth were broken. There were cuts in several places. I
wailed on seeing this condition of my husband’s body.
Then when we were about to perform the final rites for my husband as per the
customs of our community, the policemen prevented us from doing anything and forced us to
cremate the bodies, issuing threats too. So we cremated my husband’s body on our land at
about 1.00 PM in the afternoon.
www.tamilri.com
94