A 17-year-old girl, who was one of the four persons booked by the Thadagam police on Sunday for alleged trespassing into a brick chamber in Thadagam valley, has appealed to District Collector G.S. Sameeran to initiate action against the brick kiln owners who allegedly attacked and threatened them.
According to her petition, she along with activists G. Mohanraj alias Mac Mohan (47) and Thadagam S. Ganesh (44) along with his eight-year-old son visited the Anuvavi-Karupparayan stream on the northern side of Kalaiyanur village “for research purposes” at around 2 p.m. on January 2. The drone camera brought by the team went “missing” due to strong winds when operated and they embarked on a search to find it.
At that time, brick chamber owner V.K.V. Sundararaj along with a few men encircled them and accused them of taking photographs of the closed brick chamber, the petition claimed. They allegedly began attacking all four, including the boy, and her father Ramesh, who reached the spot later, was also attacked, the girl said in the petition.
She further added that her research was based on the impact of the illegal red earth mining by brick kilns on the streams running in Thadagam valley and that she had completed a book on this subject.
On Sunday, the Thadagam police registered a case against Mr. Sundararaj and six more persons on charges of rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
