Members of various organisations, which are part of Iyarkkai Paathukaapu Kuzhu (Nature Protection Council), strongly condemned the State government for detaining college student and forum’s State coordinator M. Valarmathi and four members of May 17 Movement under the Goondas Act.
In a meeting organised here on Monday to express solidarity with the detained activists and others arrested in connection with the ongoing protests in Kadiramangalam and Neduvasal, R. Murali, State general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, said all Acts with provisions for preventive detention of people, including the Goondas Act, were in violation of human rights.
Stressing that people had a basic right to peaceful assembly and protest, he said changes brought to the Goondas Act by the State government in 2014 had helped the police misuse the Act against social activists.
P. Jagan, a coordinator of the forum, said Madurai City police even denied permission for a peaceful demonstration in support of the arrested activists on Monday.
“Hence, we changed it into a meeting with three key demands: revoking imposition of the Goondas Act against Ms. Valarmathi and members of May 17 Movement; immediate and unconditional release of all the activists arrested in relation to Kadiramangalam and Neduvasal protests; and dropping methane or hydrocarbon extraction projects in the State,” he said.
Since the city police denied permission for a human chain planned last week for the same cause, the forum obtained the permission by approaching the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. “The human chain will be formed at Anna Nagar here on August 1,” he said.