A small gang with saffron towels wrapped
around their heads is standing around a stage making loud noises. All their
foreheads were smeared with saffron tilak, and a foul stench of alcohol is
emanating from their mouth. Bharat mata was also popping from their mouth in
between the damning stench of alcohol. A guy in the stage was giving speech and
cheering this gang. At this juncture, a man clad in black shirt was crossing
that area in his two-wheeler.
The guy standing on the stage shouts
aloud on the mike and proclaims that he would murder the man in black shirt one
day or the other. The man in black-shirt startled for a moment on hearing this;
the public who were staying by that area froze in horror. But none had the
courage to question the guy on the stage.
This fear in the minds of the people,
and this attitude of ‘why get into unnecessary trouble?’ are the strengths of
the goon who was standing on the stage. Nandini’s cold-blooded murder is the result
of such a strength.
That goon on the stage was Rajasekaran,
district secretary of Hindu Munnani in Ariyalur district.
We met Muthamizh Selvan, a member of Dravidar
Kazhagam (DK), who is the one who got open threat from Hindu Munnani goon
Rajasekar.
“This happened (open threat to kill) just about
two months back. I immediately filed a complaint with the police; but police has
not initiated any action against him till now”, he said.
“Ariyalur was once a strong-hold of
rationalist Dravidian movements. How did you allow Hindu Munnani to set their
foot in such a place comrade?” we asked.
“Rajasekar is always surrounded by 10 to 15
goons, comrade; all in their twenties. He has corrupted them by supplying ganja
(cannabis), alcohol and prostitutes regularly. We can only camgaign against them;
we cannot attract the youth by stooping to such low levels by replicating what Hindu
Munnani does”
Not just the members of the progressive
organizations like DK; conversation with a few common people too revealed the
secret of how the Hindu Munnani establishes and develops its outfit. Nandini’s
murder is just one in their endless list of dreadful criminal activities; they
also constantly produce ghastly beasts that are capable of committing many more
such murders and gang rapes. Understanding the modus operandi of these gangs is the first step in rooting them out
from our soil.
About 10 to 12 years back, Rajasekar was a
petty criminal, and a small-time rowdy known to police. That was his identity.
At some point, when the number of cases increased, he ran away to Chennai
fearing prosecution by police. Rajasekar, who was an air-conditioning
technician, ran a small air-conditioning repair workshop in Chennai. That was
when he gets familiarised with RSS and Hindu Munnani.
Periyar movements that once wielded huge influential
in Ariyalur district have lost their vigor now. Similarly, some revolutionary
groups that deviated from the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary path and attempted
to create revolution using short-cuts, have now deteriorated into criminal
gangs running kangaroo courts for their survival. The vacuum created because of
all these factors, was perfectly utilized by the ruling class who promoted
casteist outfits like Pattaali Makkal Katchi (PMK).
Manikandan’s name in Hindu Munnani’s pamphlet
Even though the youth were attracted
towards the caste politics, the hindutva terrorists groups headed by the RSS
have always found it challenging to set foot in Ariyalur because of the legacy
created by Periyar and Leftist movements and its impact. The saffron gang which
was waiting to grab this district at a suitable time with the help of a
suitable lieutenant, jumped in joy when it found Rajasekar.
The Hindutva gang assigns Rajasekar with the
task of establishing a hintutva outfit at Ariyalur, and sends him back home
from Chennai. There is an important difference between Hindu Munnani and other
vote-bank political parties. In other parties, one can become a real-estate
agent or a rowdy only after joining in a party working for some time. But Hindu
Munnani and other sangh parivar outfits give preference and positions only to
professional rowdies and criminals.
As hindutva outfits has no other activity
other than creating and promoting violence and vandalism, the RSS brahminical mafia
appoints only persons with ‘suitable’ qualification and experience as leaders.
Rajasekar, who returns to Ariyalur as Hindu
Munnani’s district secretary, starts the ‘party activities’ immediately. He
attacked two churches, created ruckus over playing prayer calls in mosques, and
so on and so forth; this way, he tries to establish his name in the minds of
the people in the Ponparappi area. He also gathers a gang of petty criminals
and keeps them around. The rogues including Manikandan and Manivannan, who gang-raped
and murdered Nandini, are part of this criminal gang.
How did Rajasekar manage the expenses of this
criminal gang? What was his source of income?
As soon as he returned to Ariyalur from
Chennai after taking over as district Secretary of Hindu Munnani, he gets a business
contract from Dalmia cements office at Ariyalur for maintenance of
air-conditioners. How is Dalmia, a big and reputed corporate organization,
awarding a contract trusting a local petty criminal?
The state leadership of Hindu Munnani was able
to award the maintenance contract to Rajasekar, through recommendation from
Gurumurthy, a Chartered Accountant auditing book of accounts for Dalmia Cements
(Gurumurthy is also the editor of Tamil weekly news magazine ‘Tughlaq’, and an
important leader of RSS and Swadeshi Jagran Manch). Many people we met have
authenticated the veracity of this information. They also said, Rajasekar has
shared stage with sangh parivar leaders during many events, on different occasions.
In the name of A/C maintenance contract, the
sangh leadership has arranged for monthly income of a few lakh rupees to
Rajasekar. Apart from this, Rajasekar also earns additional income from Dalmia
for supplying goons to intimidate workers whenever a labour dispute occurs.
Lavish income earned through rowdyism, and kangaroo
courts (i.e., unfair dispute resolution
through physical intimidation); and ability to wield influence at police stations
with the backing of organizational strength from Hindu Munnani – these were the
prime factors that helped Rajasekar to establish Hindu Munnani in Ariyalur.
During the Ganesh Chathurthi last year, only 10 Ganesh statues were installed for
worship in the Ponparappi region; but this year (2016), he was able to install
more than 50 statues.
Initially, he lures youngsters with a promise of
getting them job placements at Dalmia; as soon as they fall for his bait, he supplies
them with ganja and alcohol at his own expense, and asks them to carry out some
minor crimes. Just a few weeks before Nandini’s murder, the same Hindu Munnani
criminal gang including Manikandan, Manivannan, Manimozhi, Vetri Selvan
Thirumurugan, has attacked a teacher with a sickle at night and robbed him.
Exactly
two months prior to this incident, this same set of beasts were involved in
gang-rape of another girl belonging to a dominant caste. When this issue was
taken up in the village panchayat, Rajasekar intervened and mediated it. He
negotiated some financial settlement with the victim’s family and brushed the
issue under the carpet.
The Hindu Munnani goondas, emboldened with the
support of Rajasekar, and the backing of Hindu Munnani, did whatever they
pleased; they carried-out all sorts of activities including fraud, cheating and
murder at their own beck and call.
These barbaric beasts were roaming around like
playboys without any productive work to do. Rajasekar had also rented a house
in Ponparappi for this dissolute criminal gang to stay; he paid Rs.3,500 as
rent for a house which was worth less than Rs.300. We inquired with the public
about the people staying in the house, and their activities. But no one was
ready to share any information, as they were all worried if they would be in trouble
for speaking out. A few came forward to share the truth, on the condition of
anonymity.
Guna alias Gunasekaran of Srirangam, and Raja
– both full-time workers of Hindu Munnani – were staying in that house, said
the locals. Nandini’s assasins Manikandan and Manivannan also used to come
there every day. This gang was involved in petty thieving activities like stealing
gas cylinders from nearby houses, stealing goats for food, etc. And they were
always wallowing under the intoxication of ganja.
In addition to intoxication of ganja, they
also brought prostitutes and were unruly at night. The locals say, Rajasekar
himself has brought prostitutes from Ariyalur a number of times in his own
white Mahindra Xylo car. Though people around were very much infuriated because
of such disgusting activities, they remained silent out of fear.
When we saw the video footage of police
recovering the body of Nandini, our hearts almost stopped out of shock and
horror. We were stunned to see that a ‘human’ was able to kill another fellow
human in such a barbaric manner; and were dumbstruck in horror when we came to
know that a ‘man’ could gang-rape an innocent girl who got pregnant because of
him, and kill her in an extremely horrible manner possible.
Manikandan acquired the rage to kill Nandini
in such an extremely horrible manner only from the experience of working as a
lieutenant for the past one year in Rajasekar’s rowdy gang as well as the Hindu
Munnani. The haughtiness that one of their fraternal parties is holding power
at the Centre, support from police, filthy money, backing of Hindu Munnani,
arrogance of dominant caste – all these factors have contributed in
transforming these petty criminals to cruel murderers.
After killing Nandini, Manikandan has used a
white SUV to carry her body to the well. No one in the gang other than
Rajasekar owns a white SUV; we got this confirmed multiple times through our
inquiry. Though the activists fighting for justice in Nandini’s murder case
have mentioned Rajasekar’s name in the complaint letter, police so far has
refused to summon and question him.
Going by his earlier experience at Ponparappi
in the other sexual assault case, he thought that he could buy-out Nandini’s
family too. As Nandini’s family is very poor, he calculated that throwing some
money at them would make them shut their mouth; even if the issue goes out of
hand, he thought, Hindu Munnani’s influence could be used to ensure amicable
closure of the case.
Police has now arrested Manikandan and his companions
who were directly involved in Nandini’s murder. But Rajasekar, who is the
master-mind behind the murder, is still roaming around freely with a new set of
murderers like Manikandan. To prevent any other woman from undergoing a similar
horrific fate like Nandini, people in that area demand that Rajasekar and his
murderous gang should be arrested immediately, and should be awarded highest
punishment.
The protest against ban of Jallikattu, which
started at a very small scale on the 14th of January, soon transformed
to become a great uprising and reached all over Tamil Nadu within a week. In
Chennai’s Marina beach as well as other places in Tamil Nadu, women protesters
participated equally with men. Women, many of whom were young, were able to
stay at the protest sites day and night in the midst of thousands of unknown
men, without any fear of being harassed. Media all over India noted this with
so much pride and surprise. It was a great honor for Tamil Nadu! But, on the
same day i.e., 14th of January, Nandini’s decomposed body was recovered
from the well. This cannot be looked at as an unexpected disaster that happened
to a girl in Sirukadambur, a small village in Ariyalur district. This is a
shame to whole of Tamil Nadu!
What
the RSS goons have committed to a “Hindu” girl Nandini is exactly a repeat of
the same crime that they committed to a Muslim girl Kauser Bi during Gujarat
pogrom in 2002. As ‘well-disciplined’ RSS pracharak Shanmuganathan was staying
at Governor’s bungalow, there was no need for him to go in search of a
dilapidated well. Since Manikandan had not yet grown to the level of
Shanmuganathan, he needed a well to hide his crime.
Those who are of the opinion that the BJP
fascists are enemies only to Muslims should start thinking at least now.
Jallikattu protests were successful – but we need not go beyond the bulls. A
historic responsibility awaits us – responsibility to save our society from the
poisonous stings of sangh parivar by nipping them off and destroying them.
“Will you fulfill that responsibility?”,
Nandini is asking us.
