S Vanchinathan: A persecuted activist speaks out     

S Vanchinathan, a lawyer and member of the Makkal Adhikaram (People’s Power), which was one of the organisations at the forefront of the anti-Sterlite movement, narrated to this correspondent a vivid account of the alleged persecution which the Tamil Nadu police, in cahoots with the top echelons of the government, has unleashed against him and his compatriots.

Six members of the organisation were detained after being slapped with various provisions of the National Security Act (NSA), apart from various sections of the Indian Penal Code - numbering in the 90’s, being invoked against them. Till today, they are languishing in Palyamkottai Jail in Tirunelveli District.

In one instance, in a family, both the father and the son were slapped with charges under the NSA and 80 other provisions of the IPC.

On June 23, Vanchinathan was arrested when he got off the aircraft at Chennai Airport (after having gone to make a representation to the central authorities in Delhi) , and charges for 33 cases were slapped against him. The police tried its level best to invoke the NSA against him, but were thwarted by his wife who moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and managed to secure a stay. Not to be dissuaded, the police arrested hime for one case which had been registered in 2015 in connection with the rights of Adivasis in Kodaikanal.

While he was in custody and had no means of representing himself in court, the police went and secured a search warrant for his place of residence. The police compelled him to accompany them in the search of the Madurai residence. The police went to court and obtained a search warrant against him, and conducted the search, pursuant to which his landlord threw him out. He has complied with the landlord’s decision without a murmur.

Vanchinathan had to spent 16 days in custody in terribly inhumane conditions where he had to fight to get his right to perform his daily ablutions, and when the High Court finally released him, it was with a rider that he would not undertake any activities against Sterlite.

While Vanchinathan breathes the free air and bides his time to appeal to the apex court against a wholly unreasonable ruling which deprives him of his fundamental right to protest, his fellow comrades continue to languish in jail, waiting for a ray of hope from the high court.