Govt trying to crush activists: Valarmathi

She charged that the police was acting very rudely and tore her dress when they arrested her and was stripped off in the prison in the name of inspection and claimed that the government is not for the common man but for the corporate companies. 

“Around 20 police personnel surrounded us and started assaulting us and tore our dress before pushing us into an auto,” Valarmathi recalled the incident when she came out on bail from the Special Prison for women in Tiruchy. “While the police safely covered the face and gave all sort of security to professor Nirmala Devi, who was accused in a sex scandal, assaulted the people who fight for the people’s rights and even go to extend of stripping off the dress in the middle of the road before so many people,” Valarmathi added. 

She further said, “When we informed about the police atrocity, the magistrate asked us to write only the injuries if any we had. 

We even pleaded that we have semester exam and appealed not to remand us, but the magistrate did not hear our pleas,” she said further. 

She said that the police and the judiciary are against activists. Where ever, the activists go, the police threaten them of arrest. “Still, we will never step back. We will continue to fight until the people’s demands are fulfilled,” Valarmathi said. Meanwhile, she complained that the women prison does not provide sanitary napkins to the inmates. “Even when we demand it, the authorities claim that there is no stock. Such is the situation,” she said. 

It may be recalled that on April 7, Valarmathi the first year MA Journalism student from Periyar University along with other activists Mahalakshmi (21), Kurunjithen (22), Paulsamy (43) and Manoharan (35), all affiliated to Manavar Ezhuchi Iyakkam were arrested on the way to Kathiramangalam. They were going there to express their support to the villagers protesting against ONGC for more than 100 days. After the interrogation, all the five had been booked under various sections of the IPC.