TIRUCHY: Farmer leader PR Pandian, who walked out of the prison on Monday after the Madras High Court stayed the 13-year sentence, said that he was innocent and no one can reach the spot where the ONGC properties were said to have been damaged.
PR Pandian, President of the Coordination Committee of All Farmers Associations, was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment for damaging the properties of ONGC during a protest in 2015, and he was lodged in the Central Prison in Tiruchy. However, the Madras High Court stayed the sentence after Pandian approached the court, and he was granted bail. He came out of prison on Monday.
While speaking to reporters in front of the central prison, Pandian said he was innocent, and he would prove his claims in court. He claimed that the said properties of the ONGC can not be approached by anyone, and hence the charge of damaging the properties was a foisted one.
He also claimed that such fake cases are a form of threat to the farming community, which has been opposing the government for any demands. The government wants to suppress the farming community by such cases levelled against them. He also thanked the farmers who had opposed the verdict and staged a series of protests for his release.
Meanwhile, P Ayyakannu, the state president of Desiya Thennidiya Nadhigal Inaippu Sangam, who welcomed Pandian, said, staging protests is a democratic right of every citizen, and hence the farmers have the right to protest. He urged the Chief Minister MK Stalin, who has been claiming himself supportive of farmers, should initiate steps to withdraw the cases levelled against Pandian.