Chidambaram, a doctoral student of Annamalai University, was detained for initiating students through a Facebook (FB) post to protest. As per the report, he is an active member of Tamil Dhesiya Periyakkam.
On Thursday, he uploaded a status on FB asking the students of the University to gather for an agitation over the Kathiramangalam issue.
He criticized the invoking of the Goondas Act against the protesters. He demanded that the Professor Jayaraman and the other agitators who are presently in jail under the Goondas Act to be released. Further, he also demanded that protests by the students not be portrayed as an act of terror and called for the closure of hydrocarbon projects in the State.
The FB post which was written in Tamil describes the agenda of the agitation. “The ONGC project should be halted immediately in Kathiramangalam. The government should withdraw (the) police from Kathiramangalam and release all the arrested including Professor Jayaraman. The government should also stop portraying students and activists fighting for environmental causes as terrorists. No hydrocarbon projects should be allowed in TN.”
Chidambaram asked the students to assemble at 10 A.M., on July 20 for the protest.
His arrest has come shortly after the detention of a 23 year old girl, Valarmathi, a journalism student at the Periyar University, under the Goondas Act.
Valarmathi was detained by the Salem police on July 12, 2017, under the Goondas Act because she was found distributing pamphlets in front of the government college regarding a general public meeting against the Neduvasal hydrocarbon project.
