Kozhikode, Feb 23: Adivasi gothra maha sabha leaders C K Janu and M Geethanandan, who spearheaded the month-long agitation by adviasis inside Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wyanad district that turned violent on Wednesday claiming two lives, have been remanded to judicial custody by Sulthan Bathery first class judicial magistrate this morning, police said. "Janu and Geethanandan were taken to the magistrate's residence around 7.45 am who remanded them to judicial custody", Bathery police told a new agency here.

The duo, against whom a number of charges had been framed in connection with the violent incidents, would be lodged in the district jail, they said. They were arrested at Nambikkolli in Waynad district yesterday.

K K Surendran, a lecturer, who was also nabbed by the police in Bathery yesterday for allegedly "abetting" the agitation by conducting study classes, is still reported to be in police custody. Two persons - a police constable and a tribal - were killed during fierce clashes and police firing in the Muthanga forest range on Wednesday. The adivasis were demanding allotment of free land to them by the government.

Bureau Report