According to sources, police picked up 14 farmers, who planned to participate in a proposed agitation, from their houses around midnight on Sunday.

All the 14 were booked under Section 151 of the IPC and they were kept in a marriage hall. Police also reportedly warned that they would be booked under serious sections if they did not refrain from participating or organizing agitation. Later, the farmers were let out on bail, sources said.

Many other famers, who were supposed to join the protest, from the neighbourhood went into hiding fearing arrest. Locals charged that the midnight crackdown was a deliberate ploy by the police to thwart the opposition to the project and to create fear among the anti-expressway lobby.

It may be recalled that Sekar, a farmer, committed suicide to register his protest to the expressway when his land was surveyed and boundary stones were installed for the 277-km corridor in Tiruvannamalai on July 29.

Farmers from Neepathurai to Nayambadi, whose lands were also slated to be taken over for the project, announced that they would pay homage to the deceased Sekar and then demand an end to the controversial project by taking out a pada yatra to Tiruvannamalai.