Protester's death: Madras High Court seeks authorities to file report

Chennai: Taking cognizance of a newspaper report about the death of Kuppusamy, a differently-abled protester, the Madras high court has initiated suo motu proceedings and directed authorities to file their response.

Advocate Nazarullah, a visually-impaired person, on Friday morning brought to the notice of a division bench — comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh — a report published in a Tamil daily about the death of a differently-abled person who died after participating in a protest in the city.

Taking cognizance of the report, the bench initiated suo motu proceedings and ordered notice to the principal secretary, home, social welfare department secretary and city police commissioner. “Status report be filed by March 1”, the bench added.

Hailing from Vellore district, Kuppusamy, a 67-year-old hearing impaired person died on February 18, after a headache while protesting along with other differently-abled persons on February 17.

He came to the city on Monday for the protest that was organised by various differently-abled welfare associations to demand the government to fill up all the three per cent vacancies reserved for differently-abled persons and to increase the monthly allowance.

On Wednesday, he was kept at Rajarathinam stadium along with other protesters after being taken into custody from Marina beach, the protest venue.

After he complained of headache and started to bleed from the mouth, he was rushed to Royapettah hospital. But, he died on Thursday.