CHENNAI: Holding a prima facie view that the detention of four lawyers and two law students in connection with the protest of the sanitation workers of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) illegal, the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of all of them with certain conditions.
A division bench of justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan passed the orders after hearing the urgent habeas corpus petitions (HCPs). “We are of the prima facie view that the detention of four lawyers and two law students by the police may be unlawful. It is also brought to our notice that all the arrested persons have not been produced before the magistrate court concerned for remand,” the bench said in the order.
It directed the respondent police to release forthwith the detenues - K Bharathi, president of Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam which spearheaded the strike, K Suresh, Mohan Babu, R Rajkumar, all lawyers and Muthuselvan and Valarmathi, both law students.
The court imposed the condition that the six shall not give any interviews or statements to the media or post anything on the social media regarding the workers’ strike until the next hearing on August 21.
The petitions alleged five lawyers and eight law students were illegally detained since Wednesday midnight when the police forcefully removed the striking workers near Ripon building. The counsels for the petitioners stated lawyers were not allowed to meet the detenues and expressed fear that the police may subject them to custodial torture. However, additional advocate general J Ravindran, appearing for the respondent authorities submitted that seven FIRs have been registered against these six and the remaining were let off after inquiry. He informed the FIRs were registered by the Periamet and Anna Salai police stations under various sections for alleged rioting and damaging buses.
The AAG produced a copy of an accident register of a woman constable suffering injury and video clips of alleged offences committed by the accused. Pointing out that as many as 930 were detained by the police including these, the bench said the accident register does not specifically implicate the six.