A fact-finding committee of human rights activists that conducted a study into the recent railway track blast at Sithani has called for shifting the case from the “Q” Branch police to the CB-CID.
The team, headed by A. Marx of the People's Union for Human Right, has also called upon the government to make public the findings of the experts in this regard.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Marx said that the study followed the complaints received by human rights forums that the investigating agencies had allegedly acted in a prejudicial manner against 11 youths for espousing the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils, Dalits and minority communities and upholding human rights.
They were kept in illegal detention continuously for three-four days and subjected to mental torture.
They were also made to write for long stretch of time to verify whether their handwritings matched with that of the leaflets found at the site. When the detenus were let off on June 15 following the filing of a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court the police insisted upon them to give written statements to the effect that they were allowed to go home in the evenings during interrogation.
Later, the law enforcing authorities raided some of their houses and took away certain books, compact discs and cell phones. They also arrested six persons on the charges of having brought out posters condemning the illegal detention, Mr. Marx said.
The committee noted that in the absence of any concrete evidence on the perpetrators of the crime and in the context of Director General of Police Letika Saran excluding the involvement of certain organisations the police seemed to be bent upon falsely implicating the members of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam.
The committee called upon the government to clear the doubts over the timing of the incident and whether the Salem-Chennai Egmore Express passed Sithani before or after the blast.
