The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to reconsider whether the continued retention of a Sri Lankan Tamil in a special camp in Tiruchi was necessary at all.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian passed the order on a petition by one Prasanthi who sought a direction to the government to release her husband, T.Maheswaran, detained in the special camp.
The petitioner and her husband had come to Chennai in the midst of the civil war in Sri Lanka. He used to visit the special camp at Poonamallee to treat one Suresh Kumar detained there. Mr.Maheswaran was detained on December 17, 2012 within two months after wedding.
The police alleged that Mr.Maheswaran was in charge of the LTTE’s medical wing. Mr.Justice Ramasubramanian said the government had admitted the fact that several other persons who were placed in the camp had been released. He failed to understand why there should be discrimination when it came to releasing the petitioner’s husband.
According to Sri Lankan government claims, LTTE had been wiped out. Therefore, there need not be any discrimination, especially when the petitioner wanted to go back to Sri Lanka with her husband. The judge said he did not know how just the presence of a laptop, GPRS, modem, micro-chips and electronic testing device, which would be found in any normal household today, would indicate a mindset of preparing for an attack on the island nation. The government should reconsider the matter and pass orders within two weeks.
