CHENNAI: Nearly five months after activist Mugilan was reported missing, sources said he was spotted at the Tirupati railway station on Saturday.
Responding to the news, a senior Tamil Nadu police officer said, “We have also received information that he is being brought to Katpadi. A team is headed to Katpdi to confirm it.”
The officer did not specify who was bringing the activist to Katpadi, although he implied that Mugilan was in custody of the police of either Tamil Nadu or Andhra.
Meanwhile, videos of him raising slogans against Kudankulam, while appearing to be in the custody of some police persons, went viral on social networking sites on Saturday afternoon.
Mugilan, a native of Erode, started off his career as an employee of the State Public Works Department. He quit his job in 1996 to raise his voice against environmental issues and expose corruption.
As an activist for over 23 years, Mugilan had received various threats, including to his life, and had spent one year in prison when he was illegally detained by police.
In Chennai on February 15, he released a video titled ‘Sterlite: Hidden Truth’ accusing two senior police officers of colluding with Sterlite to instigate violence during a protest against the company in Thoothukudi on May 22, 2018.
Police firing during the protest resulted in the deaths of 13 people.
During a press meet that day, he accused the police of torching vehicles and attacking protesters. After the press meet, he went to the Egmore railway station to board the Mangalore Express. This is when he was last seen.
His friends filed a missing persons complaint after his disappearance and advocate Henri Tiphagne filed a habeas corpus petition at the Madras High Court, which issued notice to the Chennai police commissioner and superintendents of police of Kancheepuram and Villupuram. Meanwhile, in April, a woman filed a complaint at the Kulithalai police station in Karur alleging Mugilan had cheated and sexually assaulted her.
As an activist for over 23 years, Mugilan had received various threats, including to his life.