When Thumbal Krishnamoor-
thy met a group of women
gathered under the shadow of
a banyan tree in Vachathi, a tri-
bal hamlet on the foothills of
Sitheri in Dharmapuri district,
following the Madras High
Court’s verdict in the case on
Friday, it was a walk of calm
closure – quite different from
his first walk to the village in
1992, alongside Basha John, a
fellow member of the then
justformed Tamil Nadu Tribal
Association (TNTA).
In July 1992, the TNTA meet-
ing in Sitheri Hills was a damp
affair, with the organisation
trying to mobilise people and
the people fearing the Forest
Department personnel. That
was when they were told of an
“attack on a village at Sitheri’s
foothill”.
Mr. Krishnamoorthy and
others travelled 18 km on foot
down the hills and crossed
three villages to reach Va-
chathi. “When we entered Va-
chathi, there was an old man
and a dog wandering about
what was essentially a ghost
village. Many had vanished in-
to the hills and others, includ-
ing the raped women, were in
Salem jail. Houses had been
vandalised, kerosene poured
on the rice, which was thrown
into the village well along with
livestock intestines,” he said.
The same day, they all went
to meet then Collector Dasa-
rathan well into midnight. He
received them but said he was
unaware of what happened in
Vachathi. The following morn-
ing, the party called for a press
meet to counter the narrative
of “the raid on the sandalwood
smuggling village”.
“We along with the now
State secretary of TNTA P.
Shanmugam and then CPI(M)
MLA Annamalai went straight
from here to Salem jail to meet
the jailed villagers.” But the
enormity of what happened
hit him, when three girls told
him of the rape days later.
“Till then we thought it was
vandalism by raid,” Mr. Krish-
namoorthy says.
In 1992, the first public in-
terest litigation petition filed
by the party was dismissed by
the then judge Padmini Jesud-
urai, who was the first woman
judge of the Madras High
Court, on the grounds that pe-
ople in high positions were un-
likely to commit such offences.
Friday’s verdict was unique
for its attempt to pin Com-
mand Responsibility on then
Collector Dasarathan and Su-
perintendent of Police Rama-
nujam.
The court has ordered ac-
tion against the two, who
headed the district.
If Vachathi’s long road to
justice began with that first
walk of the TNTA, the road was
facilitated by a few good wo-
men and men – lawyers, Cen-
tral Bureau of Investigation
personnel, judges, and offic-
ers.