Kanyakumari: In an extraordinary development, Kanyakumari district police registered cases against around 15,000 protesters including 240 named activists, including the noted anti-nuke, Dr S.P. Udayakumar and Catholic parish priests for participating in a ‘rail roko’ at Kulithurai railway station on Friday last (Dec 7), to press for intensifying the searches for the missing fishermen in the wake of the devastating ‘Ockhi’ cyclone.
Cases under IPC sections 341, for wrongfully restraining the railwaypassengers by blocking rail traffic and hindering public vehicle movement by taking up rallies, under 143 for unlawful assembly and under section 188 for disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant, have been registered against 15,000 persons, according to Kanyakumari district SP, M. Durai.
The cases come under five police stations of Colachel, Manavalakurichi, Puthukadai, Marthandam and Kaliyakavilai in the district. Among the 15,000 accused, 240 of them are named activists, including the anti-nuke activist and Pachai Thamilagam party leader, S P Udayakumar, Tamil nationalist and May 17 movement leader, Thurumurugan Gandhi and all the 12 Catholic parish priests of the coastal areas of Kanyakumari district. The Killiyoor Congress MLA S Rajesh Kumar too has been named in the accused list among the 15,000 persons, sources said.
Suspecting the intrusion of naxal elements in to the ongoing fishermen’s protest from across the state border, the police too have intensified their investigation to check outsiders from instigating the fishermen against the administration. Six members of the ‘Makkal Adhigaram’ (People’s Power), an outfit suspected to have naxal links, were reportedly picked up by the police from the fishermen's protest site.
Reacting to the registration of cases against them, Fr Churchil, one of the Catholic priests accused of instigating the people to indulge in rail roko, retorted, “let them arrest us all but we would not give up our struggle even in jail until our fishermen return safe.”
The SP, however, referring to the continuing fishermen's protests at Chinnathurai, Colachel, Kanyakumari and at various other coastal hamlets in the district said, that cases would not be registered if the protesters held their limit without hindering the public. Mr. Durai also instructed the kin of the missing fishermen to file formal complaints with their nearest police stations.
Colachel police have so far has registered a case in connection with the death of fishermen Jeranyas, based on a formal complaint preferred by his wife and another case based on a complaint by kin of 14 missing fishermen-Mariya Sujandas, Felix, Dennis, Marshal, George, Rouswelt, Anto, Vargeese, Rajan, Paniyadimai, Manoj, John Jelastin, Wilbert and Justin Babu @ Chandra Robinson. Formal complaints about the dead and missing fishermen by their blood relatives “would help the administration take further speedy action,” sources added.
