Courts have failed Chennai residents: Devasahayam

Chennai: Slamming the judiciary for jailing three volunteers of the Arappor Iyakkam (API) for trying to pull down Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's banners, retired bureaucrat M.G. Devasahayam said that the courts have failed the citizens.

Speaking at a conference hosted to express support to the jailed trio — Jayaram Venkatesan, Chandra Mohan and Athher Ahmed — Devasahayam, alongside activist Traffic K.R. Ramaswamy, spoke out against the banner culture and its exploitation by political parties.

In a collective statement, whose signatories included advocates Sudha Ramalingam and V. Suresh, the civil society members demanded the arrest of AIADMK party workers who were caught on camera attacking the API trio.

“I am told the police did not even provide a copy of the FIR to the arrested as is rule and even then, based on what prima facie case did the magistrate order them to be put in jail. What kind of judiciary do we have? It has been a total failure,” said Devasahayam, referring to the charges filed under Section 427 (3) of the IPC pertaining to defacement of public property.

“As long as people are cowards, anyone will do anything and rowdies will rule us. This banner culture is a disease,” he added.

M. Jahir Hussain, former AAP MP candidate and API vice-president, told media persons that E-4 police station inspector, Guna Vardhan, refused to accept the complaint against the placement of illegal banners.

API member A.R. Ramiah told DC that the arrested trio was kept in the dark about the case slapped against them for nearly six hours after their detention. When asked, if any political parties had expressed support to them, Ramiah said that none had and that it was not surprising. “In fact, the DMK are the worst abusers of the banner culture and the others are not too different,” he noted.

The trio was ordered to be jailed till January 12 while API said that they will move bail on January 7 at the Egmore Metropolitan Magistrate Court.