Tsundur massacre
The Tsundur massacre refers to the killing of several Dalit people in the village of Tsundur, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India, on 06.04.1991.[1] 13 Dalits were massacred by upper-caste (Reddy and Kapu) men in the fields. When a young graduate dalit youth was beaten because his feet unintentionally touched a Reddy woman in the cinema hall, the dalits of the village supported him. As a result, Dalits were socially boycotted by the Reddy landowners of the village. Many dalits have lost their livelihood as they depend on the daily wages by working in the paddy fields of the Reddys. The significance of this atrocity was dalits collectively fought to gain legal justice by invoking SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989.
The killed Dalit youth were cremated in front of the Reddy household's for the guilty behaviour in the village of Tsundur, Guntur District. One can see the cremated bodies even today also.
Justice
212 people were charged in a total of 12 separate cases regarding the incident. 33 defendants subsequently died and the Supreme Court of India then dismissed the charges citing lack of evidence. A Division Bench comprising Justices L. Narasimha Reddy and M.S. Jaiswal turned down the verdict of trial court saying the prosecution had failed to prove the exact time of death, place of occurrence and the identity of attackers.
Bojja Tharakam was senior public prosecutor Tsundur massacre case in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
References
- "Andhra Pradesh News Briefly". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- "Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- IANS (22 April 2014). "Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case". business-standard.com. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
Further reading
- Police Killings and Rural Violence in Andhra Pradesh
- Brutal Killings of Harijans in Tsundur Village of Guntur District
- Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh
- "Post-Chundur_and_Other_Chundurs.pdf" (PDF). balagopal.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
- "THE TSUNDURU CARNAGE-APCLC REPORT" (PDF). balagopal.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
- "Read Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh, India: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories - ODI Working Papers 179". www.readbag.com.