HC accepts CB-CID report that Ilavarasan committed suicide

Nearly four years after dalit youth Ilavarasan was found dead on the railway tracks in Dharmapuri district after being separated from his girlfriend, triggering prolonged caste unrest in the state's northern districts, the CB-CID has concluded that it was a case of suicide.

In 2012, after Ilavarasan married a caste Hindu girl, violence broke out in three colonies in Dharmapuri. A year later, on July 4, 2013, the boy was found dead near a railway track.

When the petition from Ilavarasan’s father Elangovan of Natham Colony in Dharmapuri district seeking transfer of the case to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising outstation officials came up before the bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice R Mahadevan, the CB-CID filed a report stating that Ilavarasan had committed suicide.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday agreed, accepting the police report. Ilavarasan's family, however, alleged that the police intimidated their son's close friend and another relative to give statements that would corroborate their suicide theory.

Divya's father had committed suicide after she eloped with Ilavarasan. In June 2013, when Divya's mother filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the court, she chose to go with her mother and got separated from Ilavarasan.

Subsequently, Ilavarasan was found dead on a railway track in Dharmapuri district on July 4, 2013.