Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday wrote to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu requesting his intervention in the release of 32 persons from Tamil Nadu arrested in Chittoor. She also deputed two advocates to work towards their release. The arrested persons hail from Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Chennai districts.
“I request you to urgently intervene in the matter and facilitate their immediate release. I am also deputing two advocates of the government of Tamil Nadu to liaise with your officers in securing the immediate release of the 32 innocent persons from Tamil Nadu,” she wrote.
In her letter, Ms. Jayalalithaa registered “deep concern” over their arrest.
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“These persons, who were only passengers in a train, have been arrested on the suspicion of alleged forest-related offences. It is not clear how they have been accused of forest-related offences when they were nowhere near the forest,” she said.
The Chief Minister wrote that she had come to understand that the arrested individuals had been travelling from Chennai to Tirupati by the Garudadri Express.