Akash custody death case: Activist alleges house arrest

MADURAI: Social activist M Lenin alleged that Ramanathapuram police kept him under house arrest from Saturday afternoon, saying he might disturb the Prime Minister’s programme in Chennai on Sunday. He said he was allowed to leave only on Sunday evening.

Lenin, coordinator of the Justice for Akash Delison Murder Campaign Group, said policemen of the Abiramam police station confined him in Melakodumalur village in Mudukulathur taluk.

He said he had reached the village on Friday night. “When I was about to leave the village on Saturday afternoon, a police team prevented me from leaving, citing the Prime Minister’s programme, which the Chief Minister was also to attend,” he said.

He also alleged that Sivaganga police closely monitored the movements of Akash Delison’s family in Manamadurai.

Lenin has been supporting the family of Akash Delison, a Scheduled Caste youth who died in police custody. On September 3, he and the family approached Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s convoy outside the Secretariat in Chennai and submitted a petition.

Suspecting that Lenin and the family might do it again, police prevented them from meeting the Chief Minister when he visited Madurai for the Thaimanan Gold scheme in the first week of October.