TN seeks AP CMs intervention for release of 32 'woodcutters'

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, seeking his intervention for the release of 32 suspected woodcutters from Tamil Nadu who were arrested by that state's police on Friday, describing them as "innocent".

Yesterday it was incorrectly reported that Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the Centre's intervention in the matter.

The 32 persons hail from Chennai, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts in Tamil Nadu, she told Naidu, adding that they were reportedly travelling to Tirupati by Garudadri Express when they were arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police at Renigunta Railway Station.

They had been charged under different sections of IPC and the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act,1967 and remanded to custody and lodged in Chittoor Jail, she told Naidu in a letter yesterday.

"These persons, who were only passengers in a train have been arrested on the suspicion of alleged forest related offences. It is not clear how they have been accused of forest related offences when they were nowhere near the forest," she said.

"I request you to urgently intervene in the matter and facilitate their immediate release.

"I am also deputing two advocates of the government of Tamil Nadu to liaise with your officers in securing the immediate release of the 32 innocent persons from Tamil Nadu," Jayalalithaa said.