Erode: The Perundurai police have booked a marriage hall owner under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for refusing to rent the hall for a dalit couple’s marriage reception.An investigation officer said they booked C Ravi, 45, of Perundurai, who owns a small marriage hall near Anna Silai, based on a complaint lodged by K Rani, 45, a dalit woman from the same area. “Rani approached Ravi in the last week of Feb to book the marriage hall for her younger son’s wedding reception. Ravi confirmed the availability of the hall and agreed to rent it out to her for the event. When Rani met Ravi at the marriage hall’s office on March 3 to hand over advance payment for the hall booking, he asked her about her caste. When he came to know that she was a dalit, he refused to allocate the hall to her,” the officer said. Following this, Rani lodged a complaint with the Perundurai police the same evening. Police registered a case against Ravi under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and picked him up for interrogation, during which he suffered high blood pressure and fell sick. He was rushed to a private hospital in Perundurai. The officer said Ravi, who was admitted to hospital, would be arrested as and when his condition improves.
