A special court in Tamil Nadu has sentenced six people to two years in jail for stopping a Dalit woman cook from preparing food for children at a government school in 2018. The court, which handles cases under the SC/ST Act, found them guilty of caste discrimination and related offences.
The case involved P Pappal, a 44-year-old cook at the Government Higher Secondary School in Thirumalai Goundampalayam. According to the prosecution, six parents – P Palanisamy Gounder, N Sakthivel, R Shanmugam, C Vellingiri, A Duraisamy and V Seetha Lakshmi – objected to her cooking for the students because of her caste. Their actions triggered protests from the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, especially after Pappal was transferred following the incident.
A complaint was filed on Pappal’s behalf in July 2018, after which Cheyur police registered a case against 35 people under the SC/ST Act and arrested eight of them.
On Friday, Judicial Magistrate M Suresh convicted six of the accused and sentenced each of them to two years in prison along with a fine of ₹5,000. Twenty-five others were acquitted due to lack of evidence, while four of the accused died during the trial. The convicted individuals have been sent to Coimbatore Central Prison.
Senior advocate P P Mohan, who represented Pappal, told reporters that justice was still incomplete. He said officials, including the BDO and certain police personnel who transferred the cook following pressure from some parents, “should also be held accountable for what happened.”
