SANTHOSH EACHIKKANAM Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is the sole accused in Crime No.932/2018 of Hosdurg Police station for offences punishable under section 3 (1) (u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

(2.) According to the prosecution, the defacto complainant laid a complaint on 6/10/2018 stating that, he is an officer in the LIC and he belongs to an ST community in Kasaragod. He is the only officer belonging to that community employed in the LIC. He had married a woman who belongs to an SC community in Mangalore. Two children were born in the matrimonial relationship. Both the husband and wife, though belong to different castes, both castes followed similar family customs and used to enter into matrimonial relationships.

(3.) The accused belongs to a Nair tarawad of Kasaragod. He is a well known writer and author of several books. In April 2018, one channel telecast an interview with the accused herein. It was captioned as "my story is not ante dalit". In the above channel discussion, he was referring to a book penned by him, which was criticized by certain persons as one against SC and ST community. He referred to the above criticism and countered it by stating that his book was not ante SC & ST. However, he asserted that, he was only pointing out certain aberrations in the attitude of persons belonging to ST & ST community once they achieve social and financial status. He alleged that, when dalits acquire social and financial status in the society, they try to become Nair or Namboothiri. He stated that, book referred to the relationship of an upper caste male with a girl. Some readers believed that in the relationship between these two persons, one SC & ST community woman, who got embroiled was the sufferer and she did not get justice which was due to her. The accused commented that, it was based on a wrong perception of the issues involved. He asserted that, when dalits acquire status in the society and acquire financial independence, instead of trying to become like Dr.Ambedkar, they used to try to become Nair or Namboothiri. Accused asserted that, Dr.Ambedkar tried to raise dalits to his level. However, some dalits , after achieving social status, marry white girls. He stated that, it arises out of a wrong notion embedded in their mind.