MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by a man seeking compensation from the state government for injuries suffered by him during the lathi-charge conducted by police to control a mob of protesters belonging to Popular Front of India (PFI), in Ramanathapuram in 2014.
Justice GR Swaminathan, who passed the order on a petition filed by advocate and PFI member SA Syed Shaik Alaudeen in 2014, observed that there is nothing on record to show that the police used excessive force. Moreover, the inquiry report, which was submitted by CB-CID based on an earlier direction issued in another petition filed over the incident, also exonerates police, the judge added.
He further pointed out that a criminal case registered against the PFI members, including the petitioner, for unlawful assembly is still pending. Stating that the organisation should not have changed the starting point of the procession despite the police’s objection, the judge said the rule of law applies not only to officials and the state machinery but also to private individuals.
“The conduct of the organizers was clearly illegal and the assembly that was formed outside the Pallivasal on the said date was unlawful,” he held and passed the above order. The organisation had obtained permission to hold a public meeting and rally on February 17, 2014, at Ramanathapuram.
Though it had wanted to commence the procession at Kumaraiah Kovil junction, considering that it was a sensitive area, the police had granted permission to begin the rally only from Chinnakadai junction.
Nearly 1,300 PFI members decided to take a much longer route and assembled at a Pallivasal situated on the Ramanathapuram-Rameshwaram highway, following which the police resorted to lathi-charge.
“The involvement of some PFI members in the murderous attack on Prof Thomas of Kerala is well known. For an imaginary act of blasphemy alleged to have been committed by the professor, his palm was chopped off. The professor’s wife went into depression and later committed suicide. Of course, during 2014, PFI was not a proscribed movement. One can take judicial notice of the fact that PFI was having radical Wahhabi elements on its rolls,” Swaminathan commented.