CHENNAI: After he was identified and taken into custody, a special team of the Railway Police brought activist Mugilan first to Katpadi station. He reached there around 10.30 on Saturday night and was handed over to Vellore CB-CID officers.
A medical checkup was conducted at the Vellore Medical College Hospital, after which he was handed over to a CB-CID team from Chennai.
Mugilan continued to raise anti-Sterlite slogans as police took him to van.
Later, after meeting him in Chennai at the CB-CID office, Mugilan’s wife Poonkodi claimed he was very weak and needed immediate medical assistance.
“The sexual assault case against him was a false charge, filed with the motive of keeping him away from public consultation to be held on the subject of nuclear waste disposal, in Erode,” she alleged.
A case alleging cheating and rape was filed against Mugilan at the Kulithalai police station on March 31 and later transferred to the CB-CID. Mugilan was last seen on February 15 before he went missing.
“Mugilan’s friend Shanmugam, who was about to board a train from that station, heard someone raising slogans. He then confirmed that it was Mugilan and informed me, and I alerted the CB-CID officials,” said Poonkodi.
Mugilan’s lawyer Sudha Ramalingam said that he would be remanded under judicial custody after being produced before the metropolitan magistrate on Sunday.
She said there were no signs of custodial torture.
It is not known if or when he would be produced in the Madras High Court where a habeas corpus case filed by activist Henry Tiphagne is being heard.
Meanwhile, the activist’s friends, who met him on Sunday, said he was traumatised by his experiences. Mani, convenor of the Students and Youth Association of Tamil Nadu, who had filed the missing person’s case at the Egmore railway station after Mugilan disappeared, said the activist started to cry when he saw him.
“He being stubborn and saying that he will only speak to the judge,” Mani told Express.
According to Kanioviya, another activist who met Mugilan, he had been given four injections for a dog bite he had suffered 15 days ago.
He suffered a lot in the hands of his kidnappers and was unable to overcome the trauma, she alleged.