Tamil Nadu: ED to drop case against Dalit farmers after outrage

The Enforcement Directorate will close a money-laundering case against two Dalit farmers from Tamil Nadu who were summoned last year, the Hindustan Times reported.

This comes days after an outrage over the agency’s summons having mentioned the farmers’ caste. Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi president and MP Thol Thirumavalavan had demanded that the agency’s officials be booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The farmers, Kannaiyan and his brother Krishnan, live in Attur village of Tamil Nadu’s Salem district. The summons, sent by the Enforcement Directorate in July, had described the farmers as Hindu Pallars.

According to the lawyer of the two farmers, Dalit Parvina, the summons did not contain any details of the case they were to be questioned in, reported The News Minute.

The summons also came at a time when the farmers are engaged in a legal battle pertaining to an alleged land grab attempt by G Gunashekar, the secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Salem East district unit, the lawyer told the news website.

ED wants to question poor Dalit farmers why they are objecting to a BJP leader grabbing their land? https://t.co/aOYpbnE3gz— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 1, 2024

However, the Enforcement Directorate has said that the case against the two brothers was registered in 2022 based on a letter sent by the Tamil Nadu...

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