2 activists held for preventing kin from accepting farmer’s body

TIRUCHY: Karur police on Wednesday arrested environment activist RS Mugilan and a social activist advocate Shanmugam for allegedly preventing the kin of a farmer, who was killed for opposing the functioning of illegal stone quarry, from accepting his body demanding a compensation Rs 1 crore to the family.

On September 9, Jegannathan (58), a social activist and farmer from K-Paramathi in Karur along with few other social activists lodged a complaint against Selvakumar (45) for running the stone quarry without license and demanded action against him. Subsequently, the officials ordered to close the quarry.

In such a backdrop, Jegannathan was run over by a lorry on September 10. He died on the spot and the police arrested the lorry driver Sakthivel and the quarry owner Selvakumar in connection with the murder.

The body of Jegannathan was kept in Karur Government Medical College Hospital and the family members refused to accept the body. While the district administration held a series of talks, the kin refused to budge.

Meanwhile, a group of activists, including Mugilan, advocate Shanmugam also joined the protest along with the family members of Jegannathan demanding a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family of the deceased. On Wednesday, for the fifth consecutive day, the activists continued to protest near the mortuary and suddenly, Karur police arrested both Mugilan and Shanmugam charging that they were preventing the family from accepting the body.

In the meantime, the family members accepted the body on Wednesday evening after talks with the revenue officials and it was cremated at the Balammalpuram crematorium in Karur.