COIMBATORE: A woman dalit panchayat president from a village near Annur in Coimbatore district has alleged that a non-dalit man had referred to her caste and verbally abused her after she insisted on following the rule while levying house tax for the latter’s newly built house.
The panchayat chief had alleged that the man had also threatened to kill her if she delayed the process of levying house tax for the new structure as the tax receipt is a vital document often shown as proof of ownership.
Police received a complaint on Thursday from S Chithra, president of Kanchapalli panchayat near Annur, and commenced inquiries.
In her complaint, Chitra said she was seated in her office on Thursday morning when Guruprasad, son of Suresh Kumar of Alagapuri Nagar from Kanchapalli came to the office.
He sought to know about the status of his application for levying house tax.
Chithra stated in the complaint that she told Guruprasad that she would visit the house, inspect it and then process his application for levying house tax.
“Immediately, Guruprasad got furious and started abusing me mentioning my caste name,’’ Chithra said.
She alleged that he used derogatory terms and threatened that the house tax should be levied by that evening.
“If I fail to do so, he threatened to murder me as well as my family members,’’ she alleged in the complaint.
Chithra alleged that Guruprasad also attempted to assault her.
But panchayat staff and villagers guarded her from him, she said appealing police to act against Guruprasad.
Police said that they have launched a probe and would act if the allegations were to be true.
Meanwhile, social activists have demanded immediate arrest of Guruprasad and give protection to Chithra.
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