KARUR (TAMIL NADU): Environmental activist Mugilan, who was found at an Andhra Pradesh railway station on Saturday, almost 140 days after he went missing, was arrested on rape charges in Chennai on Sunday. CB-CID sleuths kept Mugilan at their office at Egmore and allowed his wife Poonkodi and friends to meet him.
The case alleging cheating and rape had been filed against him by a fellow activist Meena* at the Kulithalai police station in Karur district on March 31. The case had been transferred to the CB-CID.
Mugilan, who had last been seen on the night of February 15, was spotted at an Andhra railway station on Saturday. Video of him being dragged along by some police personnel as he shouted slogans went viral. It is not clear who took the video.
“Shanmugam, a friend of Mugilan, who was about to board a train at that railway station heard someone raising slogans. He confirmed that it was Mugilan and informed me. I told the CB-CID officials,” Poonkodi said.
Police confirmed that Mugilan had been arrested in the rape case. 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. “After producing him in a court in Chennai and obtaining a transit warrant, he will be taken to Kulithalai. He will be produced in a court there soon in connection with the rape case,” a CB-CID official said. 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.
Meena who hails from Namakkal had filed a complaint stating that Mugilan had promised to marry her and cheated and also sexually assaulted her. So she had approached the police demanding they take action against him.
Meena had participated in numerous protests alongside Mugilan in various social issues in the past. The complaint from her sent shockwaves among his followers and supporters. The AWPS of Kulithalai had filed cases under IPC sections 417, 376 and sec 4 of TNPHW Act.
It is to be noted that, about a month before he went missing, Mugilan and Meena had arrived at the Karur district collectorate together demanding the closure of illegal sand mining quarry at Vathiyam in Kulithalai and submitted a petition. At that time, her parents came to the collectorate and accused Mugilan of kidnapping their daughter.
Mugilan will be brought to the Karur Mahila court for the investigation of the rape case R S. Mugilan (48) has a son, who is studying in a private college in Coimbatore.
Mugilan was earlier arrested by Aravakurichi police in Karur on December 17th of 2017 under the sections 124(A), 153(A)(1) and 505(1)(b) of IPC after his controversial speech in a public meeting on April 23rd of 2017. And then he received bail from the Karur court on September 2018.
He is also the coordinator of Cauvery Preservation Committee, has raised his voice against several social issues and causes such as, Thoothukudi’s Sterlite factory, beverage companies taking water from rivers and lakes, Koodankulam Nuclear power plant, Mekedatu dam in Karnataka, effluents released by dyeing units and mainly against illegal sand smuggling at the Cauvery river beds. He had organized and headed numerous protests for the welfare of people.