The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by 31 Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against them for having attempted to lay siege to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s residence on February 14 demanding justice for a Thanjavur girl student who died by suicide due to alleged pressure to convert to Christianity.
Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan refused to entertain the petition filed by the 31 students hailing from New Delhi, Tirupati, Puducherry, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Theni, Tiruchi, Vellore, Salem, Villupuram, Tiruvallur and Chennai. The judge said they had been booked for damage to public property and hence the FIR could not be quashed.
He recorded the submissions of Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak that the students had gathered unlawfully at a high security zone which housed not only the Chief Minister’s residence but also the Japanese Consulate. They pushed down the police personnel on duty and broke the barricade. The students tore the uniform of the policemen and tried to barge into the CM’s residence, Mr. Thilak said.
Further, the police vehicles parked outside the Chief Minister’s residence were damaged, he said.
R.C. Paul Kanagaraj, counsel for the petitioners, told the court that the police vehicles were damaged during the scuffle between the police personnel and the students who wanted to protest peacefully and that no damage was caused intentionally.
Rebutting such contention, Mr. Tilak told the court that the students did not have permission to stage a protest at the site and that they had gathered from throughout the country with the intention of laying siege to the CM’s residence. He stated that 12 out of the 35 students, named in the FIR, had given false residential address when they were produced for remand before a Metropolitan Magistrate pursuant to their arrest.
“These 12 students were warned that they might not be able to obtain bail if they end up giving false addresses. Such was their conduct. They do not deserve any leniency from the court. The police must be allowed to investigate the case because of the serious security threat caused very close to the Japanese Consulate,” he said.
