Anti-nuke protesters booked in connection with explosion

Tirunelveli: People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convenor S P Udayakumar (2nd from L) with MDMK chief Vaiko during the forum's first anniversary at the protest site in Idinthakarai in Tirunelveli district on Thursday. The anti nuclear activists have been agitating against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) since August 16, 2011. PTI Photo(PTI8_16_2012_000249B)

Police have booked anti-nuclear protesters including S.P. Uthayakumar in connection with the explosion at a village near Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in which six persons including three children were killed.

Mr. Uthayakumar, head of the anti-nuclear People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, his associates Pushparayan, Mukilan and ‘others’ have been booked under different sections of IPC and Explosive Substances Act, top police sources said.

They have been booked for offences including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy among others, the sources said.

PMANE is spearheading the protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tirunelveli.

A country-made bomb had gone off “accidentally” when some miscreants were making the explosive in their hut at around 6.40 pm in Idinathakarai Tsunami colony on Tuesday, about 15 km from the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

Among the dead were a woman and three children who were all aged below five. Two persons were injured in the incident.

The plant was however running safe, DAE officials had said.