Mother of three alleges police harassment

A middle-aged woman who is living with her three daughters after her husband left her, alleged police harassment ever since her brother was arrested in connection with a murder case. She also complained that a private school threatened to sack her daughters, citing long absence.

When police arrested her brother M. Muthukumar (25) in connection with a murder case in Theni in January, little did M. Muneeswari (34) realise she would be forced to go underground to escape police harassment and her daughters would face the threat of discontinuing their studies. On Monday, the woman visited the Collectorate here with her three daughters and mother, seeking the intervention of Collector K. Nanthakumar to ensure her daughters, studying Class IX, VII and VI in Syed Ammal Higher Secondary School, continued their studies. “I am an illiterate. I want my daughters to continue their studies,” she said.

Muthukumar, who was released on bail, has gone to Kerala, but police harassed Muneeswari as he had been giving her financial assistance to meet the educational expenses of her daughters. Recently, the Thirupullani police asked her to appear before the police station as they suspected Muthukumar’s involvement in a theft case, she said. As her lawyer said that the police were planning to arrest her, she went into hiding in Rameswaram with her daughters.

As her daughters could not attend classes for nearly 20 days, the school asked Muneeswari to get the transfer certificates of the three girls and leave the school.

Married at a young age, she faced the ‘wrath’ of her husband for giving birth to three girl children. After her husband Muniasamy, a fisherman in Rameswaram, married another woman, she left him and had been living here with her daughters for the past five years, she said. She eked out a living by making wire baskets and working in a supermarket, she said. Muthukrishnan and another brother Manikandan, employed in Malaysia, help her with financial assistance, she said.

She failed to understand as to why the police were after her and her petition before the Human Rights Commission did not elicit any response, she said.