Zeenext Bureau Chennai, Aug 30: In another twist to the hostage crisis, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tiruchi district judge to depute a magistrate to ascertain whether Manikantan, one of the five ultras whose release has been demanded by Veerappan to free Rajkumar and three others, is willing to go to the forest. Justice K Govindarajan passed this order, on a petition filed by P.S. Annamalai, father of Manikantan, seeking to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from handing over his son to Veerappan in exchange for the hostages. The court has directed the magistrate to submit his report on or before Sept 8.
Annamalai submitted that his son was not willing to join Veerappan, and that the state government was not empowered to take him to the forests against his wishes.
He said that in 1995, the police had taken his son into custody for pasting a wall poster in praise of LTTE leader Pirabhakaran. Thereafter, cases were foisted on him though he was not involved in any illegal activity. Again, in January this year, police had foisted a fresh case on him, alleging that he was caught planting a bomb in a water tank in Thanjavur. On the basis of this, he was detained under the National Security Act.
Manikantan had not been convicted by any court and there was no evidence to prove that he had committed any terrorist act, Annamalai said.