Chennai: Madras high court dismissed an habeas corpus petition filed by father of Thirumurugan Gandhi, coordinator of May 17 movement, challenging his son’s arrest by the police.
The division bench comprising Justices C.T. Selvam and Nirmal Kumar, before which the plea came up for hearing on Tuesday, directed the petitioner to approach appropriate judicial magistrate for bail.
Alleging that his son was kept under illegal detention even after the metropolitan magistrate refused to remand him in police custody, the petitioner said that his son was continuously harassed by the police since he supported the anti-Sterlite protesters.
Counsel for the petitioner submitted that Thirumurugan, the Coordinator of May 17 organisation, was working towards the welfare of the people and protecting the interest Tamil, minorities, physically challenged and downtrodden people. The organisation represented before various forums like the United Nation Organisation and other International forums to highlight atrocities and the cruelty meted out to Sri Lankan Tamils.
On June 25, he delivered a speech at United Nations General Assembly on Human Rights Council at Geneva and raised the issue of police firing during the protest against anti-Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi that left 13 people dead. This was translated and posted in Facebook and spread virally with an intention to cause riot and fear among the public.
This had irked the police and he had come on adverse notice of the government. He was arrested on August 9 at Bengaluru airport based on a look out circular issued by the Chennai police over a Facebook post about his speech at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The bench said writ of habeas corpus is not to be entertained when a person is committed to judicial or police custody by the competent court by an order which prima facie does not appear to have been passed without jurisdiction or in an absolutely mechanical manner or wholly illegal.
