Arrest those protesting over CAA in Tirupur, says court

A division bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy while offering the direction also made it clear to the Director General of Police (DGP) that mere registration of FIRs will not do and that the police should bother to either take the protestors into custody or disperse them.

The bench was passing interim orders on a plea moved by Hindu Munnetra Kazhagam president K Gopinath, also an advocate from Tirupur. He claimed that the anti-CAA protestors resorted to squatting on public roads thereby affecting free flow of traffic causing severe inconvenience to school children and others. In response to this, State Government Pleader V Jayaparakash Narayan submitted that the police had registered over 20 FIRs against both pro and anti-CAA protesters. Moreover, chargesheets had also been filed in some of the cases, the Government pleader said.

However, the bench led by Justice Sundresh on expressing severe dissatisfaction over mere registration of cases while the police ought to take steps to disperse the protesters squatting on public roads. “If they don’t move, take them into custody. How can you register FIRs and let them stay?” the bench wondered.

Also, with news spreading that the HC had directed the police to arrest those indulging in either pro and anti CAA protests across the State, certain advocates made a mention before the bench that the direction can’t be construed as a blanket order covering the State. Based on this, the bench made it clear that their order to disperse both anti and pro CAA will apply only to protest sites in Tirupur. Based on this, the bench directed the registry to list the case again on Friday for further directions.