Anti-Sterlite activist Mugilan arrested amid high drama! Wife met with car accident!

Tamil Nadu activist T Mugilan, who has been missing for nearly six months, was found in a railway station in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday. He was brought back to Tamil Nadu and handed over to police at Katpadi Railway Station. Later he was taken into CBCID custody.

Henri Tiphagne, human rights activist and Executive Director of People's Watch, tweeted that "#Mugilan seen alive on 1st  platform Tirupathy Rly station by  passenger on  train standing on  1st  platform proceeding to Rajamundary at 7 PM. Info passed on to his wife by this person. Mr. Jaffar Sait DHP TN CBCID duly informed." A video of him raising slogans and being taken away by police has gone viral on social media.

He was missing since February 15, after holding a news conference about alleging police complicity in the death of 13 people who protested against Vedanta's Sterlite in Tuticorin. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances and it was not clear whether he was hiding or was abducted.

His wife filed a habeus corpus petition at the Madras high court and state police are also on the lookout for him in a rape and cheating case.

The News Minute reports, Tirupati Urban Superintendent of Police K K N Anburajan said, "Mugilan was picked up by the Tirupati unit of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and he was handed over to their Chennai counterparts, who then handed him over to the CBCID in Chennai."

The SP also said that the RPF personnel who detained him, did not know it was Mugilan and only learnt this later. "He staged a small dharna in front of a train, which is when the RPF stepped in and detained him. There was no arrest made in Tirupati at all, till he was handed over to the CBCID. We do not know what action they took."

Meanwhile, his wife, Poonkodi, who went to see him from Erode after getting information about him, met with a car accident near Kallakurichi. The car hit a divider after tyre bursted and Poonkodi escaped with mild injuries. Police investigation is on.