The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court Thursday granted anticipatory bail to two Tamil Nadu-based journalists who had allegedly helped two French scribes enter a prohibited area in Kanyakumari and shoot videos for a documentary on beach sand mining last month.

Justice M Nirmal Kumar granted the bail to D Anandhakumar and M Sriram, who had been questioned by the Kanyakumari police last month in connection with the incident.

Police have registered a case against French investigative journalists Arthur Ronald and Jules Daimen for allegedly trespassing into the prohibited area in the Indian Rare Earths Limited in Kanyakumari.

The two had come to Delhi on a tourist visa on November 23 and were found taking videos of the IREL premises on November 26.

A case had been registered against them under the provisions of the Foreigners Act and the IPC section 447 (criminal trespass).

In their anticipatory bail pleas, Anandhakumar and Sriram submitted that they were questioned by the Kanyakumari DSP on November 28-29 on their role in the trespassing incident.

The two, who feared arrest, said they were only helping in translation work, and did not know about the plans of the French journalists regarding the IREL visit.

Police had earlier said the French scribes had returned to France after the incident.

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