CHENNAI: Activist receives threat calls, seeks protection

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on Jan 5, 2012:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/Activist-receives-threat-calls-seeks-protection/350091.html

CHENNAI: City-based social activist ‘Injambakkam’ H Sekar, who has waged a legal battle against influential politicians and land sharks for usurping the beach front in Injambakkam, is having sleepless nights over anonymous threatening calls.

With the callers threatening to “bump him off” for pursuing the beach encroachment case in the Madras High Court, Sekar, for the past few months, preferred to stay away from his native fishing hamlet during nights, fearing his safety.

With the case against the beachfront encroachments progressing in the High Court, Sekar began receiving threat calls on his mobile phone since August last, to withdraw the case immediately .

Besides calls over phone, unknown persons also began frequenting Sekar’s residence at Injambakkam to ‘advise’ him to remain silent in the case.

As the ‘threat’ from these quarters kept increasing, Sekar, in September last, sent telegrams to the Chief Justice of Madras High Court and top police officials seeking security.

When contacted, Neelangarai Inspector Devaraj admitted that Sekar had informed them about the threatening calls.

“Based on Sekar’s information, we conducted enquiries with the suspected persons who could have threatened him. We are providing him adequate security,” he added.

Sekar’s woes began after he secured successive court judgements for the removal of encroachments by the influential persons in Injambakkam. However, despite Madras High Court orders in 1997 and 2007, no action was taken by the Kanchipuram district administration following which Sekar filed a petition in 2008 and sought a fresh order.

Acting on Sekar’s plea, the High Court in November 2008 passed an interim order asking the Kanchipuram District Collector to file a detailed report after removing the encroachment from beachfront.

“Despite the order, no action had been taken by the district administration to remove encroachments,” Sekar told Express.

After Express published a report about the authorities’ inaction in June 2009, local officials visited the area. But again nothing happened, Sekar added.

Meanwhile, the Neelangarai police in October filed a case against Sekar for ‘immoral activities’ at Injambakkam fishing hamlet after a group of women registered a complaint.

When Sekar sought details of the complaint, the police declined to provide any details forcing him to obtain the copy of the complaint using the RTI Act. “I see the complaint as a ploy by influential people (against whom I waged the legal battle) to get me arrested in a false case,” Sekar said.