Chennai: Fellow activists allege foul play in the disappearance of Gandhian Samba Siva Rao, who launched a stir demanding that the ruling party include complete prohibition in its manifesto.
They are of the view that either the cops or ruling party cadres, who may have been irked by his campaign, could have gone the extra mile in ‘taking care’ of him. “We cannot ignore the possibility of him being mugged by party cadres or cops since Rao is always known for standing his ground in every protest he took part in”, said Siva Elango of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam(SPI). Advocate and Gandhian Thangavel echoed similar views. He added that the cops had stepped up their search for the missing Gandhian.
“Morgues at Government Royapettah Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Kipauk Medical College Hospital have already been checked. We are hoping to find him”, said a senior police official. A special team under Royapettah Police Inspector (l&o) Gopala Guruto has been formed to locate the missing Gandhian.
Sources said Rao’s last known mobile tower triangulation led to a point near Ice House around 11 pm, before the number went offline from the telecom network.
The native of Hyderabad was living all alone in his rented Chromepet residence. Five years ago, around this time of the year, Rao had been drawn towards the Indian Anti-Corruption Movement of Anna Hazare and he became a full time activist.
Having a chapatti stall to lean back on, Rao went on with his activism, ranging from anti-corruption to prohibition. He joined hands with Gandhian Sasi Perumal and continued the quest for prohibition after the latter’s death. Rao organised a
black flag protest in the vicinity of AIADMK party headquarters on April 6. And the SPI extended its support to the Gandhian besides participating in the stir.
Perhaps, this was the last demo in which he participated with his fellow activists and got picked up by the city police. He last communicated with SPI general secretary Senthil Arumugam about his arrest and another Gandhian, Ramadoss.
