HC irked by NSA against lawyer, summons Nanduri

G Hariragavan, representative of ‘Makkal Athikaaram’, Thoothukudi, the detenu, was held in connection with incidents of violence that broke out during the anti-Sterlite rally, which claimed lives of 13 persons and left several others injured, on May 22 and 23. 

A habeus corpus writ petition filed by Sathiyabama (37), wife of Hariragavan, the detainee held in Palayamkottai central prison, seeking to quash the detention order, came up for hearing before a two-judge division bench of Justices CT Selvam and AM Basheer. The petitioner claimed that police personnel harassed Hariragavan, her husband, lawyer in Thoothukudi, tortured his relatives and foisted false cases against them. On July 6, Hariragavan was arrested on various counts in 91 cases, besides the main case of violence and remanded him to judicial custody. 

Based on a bail petition filed by him before the court, the Judge granted bail on July 24 with a condition that the petitioner should not take part in any agitation in connection with Sterlite Copper unit for the next 90 days. 

Soon after the bail order copy was handed to the prison authorities at 6 pm on July 26, for his release, he was booked under Section 3 (2) of National Security Act, 1980 and the detention continued. It was a malafide intention of the Collector to defeat the bail order. 

Hence, detention order should be set aside, petitioner prayed. After hearing arguments, the division bench expressed discontent over police action and asked on what grounds the detention was made under the NSA. Subsequently, the bench felt that it was a deliberate action and wondered whether it was a ‘democratic country’ or a ‘country for police’? 

Earlier, a batch of 15 public interest litigation petitions seeking CBI inquiry into the violence, compensation for those dead in the firing and a murder case against high ranking officials for the killing and conversion of several cases into a single case of inquiry were heard.