CHENNAI: AN order of the Salem City police commissioner detaining Valarmathi (23), a PG journalism student of Salem Periyar University, under the Goondas Act, was quashed by a division bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
Valarmathi had taken part in recent protest against the hydrocarbon project at Kathiramangalam in Pudukottai. “The factum of arrest made in the ground case has not been informed to the relatives or to the friends of the detenu,” a bench of Justices A Selvam and Pon Kalaiyarasan said. There has also been undue delay in disposing of the representation made by the detainee. Hence, the order is quashed, the bench said.
Valarmathi was arrested on July 12 when she, along with another student, allegedly distributed pamphlets seeking support for the protest against the implementation of the proposed project. Five days later, the commissioner passed orders detaining her under the Goondas Act. Her father Mathaiyan, who had filed a habeas corpus, contended that the detention of his daughter, who was fighting peacefully for a people’s cause, was malice in law.