Volunteers of the group coming together as ‘citizens against CAA’ were detained by the Chennai City Police when they attempted to stage a sit in at Valluvarkottam on Monday. The volunteers — Radhika Ganesh, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, Kasturi Adhikary, Syeda Hena Rizvi, Vandana Viswanath and Varath Kanth — had assembled at Valluvarkottam on Monday to protest against the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA).
Claiming that the prohibitory orders were in place, the city police officials asked the protesters to disperse. When the protesters refused and demanded that the officials show them a copy of the Prohibitory Order issued under section 41 of the Madras Police Act, the police personnel took them in a police vehicle and detained them for a few hours at the Thousand Lights police station. A senior police official said that the protesters were detained for disturbing the public and were later released late evening.
Later in a complaint addressed to the station in-charge at Thousand Lights police station, those arrested claimed that the police personnel “used undue force to grab, drag and push us into a van.” The group has demanded that action be taken against those who had been responsible for the ‘manhandling’.
