Friday, Apr 11, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau
At the prison gates, Mr. Stalin accused the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, of ``foisting'' cases on him and his party colleagues. The DMK youth wing chief expressed the hope that Opposition parties in the State would rally together to fight the Government's ``vindictiveness.'' A case was registered against him alleging that he and his supporters had attacked the Queen Mary's College watchman. "The media had already shown how we entered the college premises and what we spoke there before coming out." A large number of DMK activists including the former Minister and Kurinjipadi MLA, M.R.K. Panneerselvam, gathered near the prison premises, raising slogans against the AIADMK. Along with Mr. Stalin, three other MLAs of the party — K. Ponmudi, J. Anbazhagan, and S.A.M. Hussain — were also lodged in the prison. Earlier, at Mr. Stalin's house late last night, a large posse of police was locked in a scuffle with party supporters to gain entry into the DMK leader's house. After a while, many policemen scaled the huge iron gates and were again locked in a `hand combat' with DMK supporters. Soon, Mr. Stalin emerged from inside the house, waved to his supporters and appealed for calm. He was whisked away in a jeep. Some supporters who attempted to block the way were lathicharged. Mr. Stalin was produced before XIII Metropolitan Magistrate, N. Venkatavaradhan, at around 12.45 a.m., and was remanded to custody at around 1.30 a.m. Mr. Stalin told the magistrate that police personnel, including an IPS officer, jumped over the compound wall of his house, broke open the gates and dragged him like a criminal.
`Why did you arrest now?'
Initially, Mr. Venkatavaradhan refused to remand them at such an odd hour, and asked them to produce all the accused at 10 a.m. When the police told him that keeping Mr. Stalin and others at the police station till the morning would create a law and order problem, the magistrate asked them, "then why did you arrest them now?" However, the DMK leaders intervened and opted to be remanded to judicial custody, saying they had fears over their safety in police custody. The former City Public Prosecutor, Raja Ilango, alleged that Mr. Ponmudi was not even intimated of the grounds of his arrest and that an Inspector filled in the remand report right at the magistrate's house. The Additional Central Government Standing Counsel, P. Wilson, cited the Supreme Court directions in the D.K. Basu case and said the midnight arrest was not warranted at all. Also, neither Mr. Stalin nor his family members were informed of the grounds of arrest, he alleged. Aghast over the ``manner of arrest,'' the People's Union for Civil Liberties general secretary, V. Suresh, said the apex court had time and again insisted that just because the investigating officer had the power to arrest an accused, he need not actually exercise it. "An arrest is made only to ensure that the investigation is conducted into the complaint." They could always summon the accused to appear before the official investigating the case, he said.
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