Thoothukudi: The case of activist Mugilan going missing, took a sudden U turn after the revelations of one of his close colleague Rajeswari’s recent Facebook postings.
“Where is Mugilan” was the query of many social and environmental activists in the state since he reportedly went missing after his press meet against the Thoothukudi police firing in Chennai on February 15. Without evidence, activists jumped to blame Tamil Nadu police and Sterlite of abducting Mugilan. Some opposition party leaders including DMK president MK Stalin, CPI leader Mutharasan and CPM state secretary Balakrishnan made it part of their election campaign against the ruling AIADMK.
A habeas corpus petition is pending with the Madurai High Court bench and the Tamil Nadu CB-CID police that has taken up the case of finding Mugilan, pasted wall posters, announcing a reward for those who give information about Mugilan.
Anti-Sterlite activist groups in Thoothukudi and others like Henry Tiphagne of People’s Watch brushed aside the suspicion raked up by some of Mugilan’s close friends like S.P Udayakumar that Mugilan has gone missing due to personal reasons. Fearing the wrath of young social activists, Udayakumar too altered his earlier idea and blamed police and Sterlite.
Now, one of Mugilan’s close associates, Rajeswari has started speaking with the pseudonym “Aithu Isai” as her ID. She claims she was in an intimate relationship with Mugilan for quite a long time. “When our relationship got strained he started avoiding me,” she said in her FB posting adding that on the day he conducted the press meet at the Chennai press club, he threatened her and prevented her from attending the meet, “as he feared that I might disclose his secrets in the press meet,” notes Rakjeswari alias Aithu Isai.
In her postings on March 22, she revealed that a week before the Chennai press meet, Mugilan confined himself to his home, hiding even his footwear. “Why did he behaved so strangely after quarrelling with me?” questioned the lady activist, who added that the relationship between her and Mugilan was well known to some senior activists in the state.
