Dalit man's body lowered into river after upper-caste locals deny access to funeral procession

Vellore: A funeral procession of a Dalit man in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district took a rather ugly turn after upper-caste locals denied them access through their fields to reach the crematorium forcing the troupe to lower his body from a steep 20-feet-high bridge over a river.

A video of this incident has gone viral over social media, post which government officials have said that a probe will be conducted into the incident and guilty punished.

The body of N Kuppam, who died on Saturday, had to be taken to an old funeral ground but the route to the destination passes through the agricultural lands of some upper caste locals, who denied entry to the procession.

In the video, a dozen men are seen slowly lowering the stretcher from the bridge, while garlands could be seen falling off the dead body.

This instance is a stark reminder of the caste discrimination still prevalent in our society. Locals even alleged that this kind of discrimination is not new to them while few claimed that this is the only way for Dalits to cremate bodies and that there is no alternative way.