Tamil Nadu government today told the Madras High Court that an interim compensation of Rs 3.75 lakh had been sanctioned to the family of a 44-year old Dalit bus conductor who was hacked to death in a bus in Salem in April last.
The submission was made Additional Government Pleader P Sanjay Gandhi when a petition by the wife of the deceased seeking relief came up before Justice V Ramsubramanian.
Shanmugam, also a social activist, was hacked to death in the bus on April 26. Though the post-mortem was over the next day, his wife and three children did not get any relief, said his wife S Murugammal's counsel P Vijendran.
As per Rule 12(4) of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocity Rules, 1995, in the event of murder of an earning member of a Dalit family, his kin should be given Rs five lakh, of which 75 per cent should be given immediately after post-mortem, while the remaining 25 per cent on conviction of the acused.
The Additional Government Pleader informed the court that the government had sanctioned Rs 3.75 lakh to the victim's kin and that the amount would be given in a week.
Granting two weeks for the authorities to file a detailed counter, the judge said the sanctioned amount should be paid in the mean time.
