Dalit Human Rights Movement in Kerala under the scanner for crimes

A nondescript Dalit outfit in Kerala – Dalit Human Rights Movement – makes its presence known with a gruesome murder.

Kerala, which is already plagued by a variety of crimes involving individuals, extremist groups and criminal gangs, is facing yet another threat in the form of a shadowy Dalit outfit. This is the Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM), which the Kerala the police suspect is responsible for the recent murder of Sivaprasad, a resident of Varkkala.

The group is under the close the surveillance of the police after the gruesome murder of the middle-aged Sivaprasad, who was hacked to death while he was on his morning walk.

Another man was attacked in a similar way the same morning, but he survived.

The two Dalit Human Rights Movement activists arrested in this connection and believed to be key functionaries of the group – Ashokan, an advocate, and Das – have been remanded in judicial custody.

More activists of the DHRM have been held, but the police are yet to divulge their details.

According to Jacob Punnoose, Director-General of Police, though the police already knew of this outfit, they have to investigate whether the organisation has any terror connections.

Jacob Punnoose admitted that the murder of Sivaprasad and the violent surfacing of the group have created enormous panic among the people and that the police are taking it very seriously.

The police say they believe that the Dalit Human Rights Movement has a solid base in Varkkala, particularly among the many colonies there where Dalits reside.

Media reports quoted a man living in one of the Dalit colonies, where the DHRM is active, as saying that he was severely beaten up by a few men, including his brother, for having refused to join the outfit even as many of his close relatives had joined it.

Another man described the Dalit Human Rights Movement as “strange” in that the members of the organisation address each other in a “different style” even if they are of the same family. This man also termed the ideology of the DHRM as “odd” and said that he was keeping off the group.

The Kerala police suspect that the Dalit Human Rights Movement is a shadowy, extremist group that works systematically and clandestinely to make the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in Kerala militant.  Top officials in the police consider the violent deeds of the Dalit group as its attempt to show off its strength.

The Dalit Human Rights Movement, based in Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala, is believed to work as a well-disciplined and well-structured outfit. Its members wear black-shirt-and-blue-trousers uniform.

The outfit was registered in North Paravoor in 2007 as a human-rights organization, with Selvaraj, 25, as its chairman. While its operations in southern Kerala are headed by Das, hailing from Cherunniyoor, near Attingal, the operations in the north are led by a man called Shaji.

Police believe that the DHRM, which is relatively stronger in the south, now has a presence in about all the Dalit pockets in Kerala.

According to intelligence reports, taking advantage of the growing dissatisfaction among the Dalits, the Dalit Human Rights Movement has been operating silently for the last about two years in colonies in southern Kerala where the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are in a majority. It was only of late that the group started coming to the fore and asserting itself, and, in the latest incident, in a very violent manner.

However, it is not yet known whether the DHRM has any connections with other extremist groups that are active in Kerala.