Environmental activist R.S. Mugilan, who is under judicial custody, on Tuesday appeared before the Aruna Jegadeesan Commission probing the police firing during anti-Sterlite protest in Thoothukudi on May 22 last year, in which 13 persons were killed.
After deposing before the Commission for nearly six hours about the incidents associated with police firing, Mr. Mugilan, who was brought here from Tiruchi Central Prison with heavy police protection, was whisked away in the same manner from the Circuit House on the Beach Road where the Commission is conducting its inquiry.
Mr. Mugilan, while being taken to Tiruchi in the police vehicle, raised slogans demanding summoning of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for having linked the RSS with the police firing.
Mr. Rahul, in a tweet, had accused the RSS and the BJP of crushing the voice of the Tamils, and held that the government was ‘murdering those who refuse to bow down to the RSS ideology’.
“Tamilians are being murdered because they refused to bow down to RSS ideals. RSS and Modi supporters cannot crush down the Tamil people’s emotions. Tamil brothers and sisters, we are with you,” he had then said in a tweet in Tamil.
In an apparent reference to this tweet, Mr. Mugilan wanted the Commission to summon Mr. Rahul too.
Mr. Mugilan, reportedly “disappeared” after he addressed media in Chennai on February 15, when he accused senior police officers of orchestrating violence in the anti-Sterlite protest. He was spotted after 141 days at Tirupathi railway station and detained by the railway police, who handed him over to Tamil Nadu police only to be arrested by the CB-CID police.
