Retired Dalit officer’s car and furniture ‘cleansed’

Ramakrishnan said the incident took place on April 1,after the new IG assumed office. On the first day,a section of officials reportedly sprayed cowdung-mixed water on the office furniture,the threshold and the official vehicle. Ramakrishnan claimed that in order to refute allegations that this was done because he was a Dalit,cowdung-water was sprayed in the entire office the next day.

Ramakrishnan said a section of officials had borne a grudge against him since he took over five years ago,and cracked down on some of them. “That might have provoked a section in the office. On the day I retired,there had been celebrations by bursting crackers,” he said.

Calling it an insult to the SC community and a violation of their human rights,Ramakrishnan said if a senior officer could be treated like this,one could well imagine what officials at junior levels might be facing.

In a similar incident in November 2010,the chamber of the panchayat president at Elanthur had been found cleansed with cowdung-water after the president belonging to the SC community demitted office.