Chennai: Slapping cases and arresting dissenters has become the order of the day under the present AIADMK government. Particularly, activists, men and women who fight against Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant in Tuticorin and the eight-lane Salem-Chennai green corridor project are bestowed with generous amount of ‘false’ cases. 

For instances five persons who were granted bail by Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 90 cases filed against them for confronting Sterlite. The modus operandi adopted by the police against them is;  slap fresh cases against each person who comes out on bail and send them to jail again. The police freely use the stringent Goondas Act and National Security Act (NSA) as a weapon of repression against the dissenters while the government continues to brand all the people who are against the government as ‘naxalites’, says advocate Jim Raj Milton S, of People’s Right Protection Center. He noted that an atmosphere has been created by the government such that the pro-Sterlite propaganda videos are doing rounds on social media and statements of Sterlite Copper’s chief executive officer P.Ramanath gets coverage in mainstream newspapers while the voice of the dissenters were repressed.

At least 40 anti-Sterlite protesters were arrested by the police including two advocates. While one got bail the other Hari Raghavan is still in jail with a total of 93 cases slapped against him, Milton said.

The state government, according to Lena Kumar of May 17 Movement, has booked P.Maniyarasan of Thamizh Thesiya Periyakkam (TTP) for a speech he made way back in October 29, 1991 and an arrest warrant has been issued against him. Similarly the state government has gone on appeal in a higher court in a case which dates back to 1988 against Pozhilan of Tamizhaga Makkal Munnani (TMM) in which he was acquitted by a lower court.

Environmental lawyer D.Nagasaila told Mirror that during a panel discussion held in Chennai on Friday in which Sterlite CEO Ramanath participated she made it clear that it’s unfair from the part of the state government and Sterlite to keep on arresting people and creating a climate of fear and terror. 

“In Tuticorin the suffering of the people is real. The problem is just there. There is no point in circumventing the issue by accusing some external elements or naxalites,” she said.

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