Farmer leader Arul Arumugam and 21 other farmers, including 19 women, have been put under preventive detention while attempting to meet Chief Minister MK Stalin at the Secretariat in Chennai on Thursday, February 22. Arul, who leads the farmers rights union Uzhavan Urimai Iyakkam, and others have been opposing the acquisition of their agricultural lands at Melma in Tiruvannamalai district for State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT). 

The detained farmers are presently at a community centre in the Singarathottam police quarters. Speaking to TNM, they alleged that two farmers were physically assaulted by police at Anna Square bus stop in Chennai, a mere two kilometres away from the Secretariat where they were headed. The assault was so grievous that one person nearly fell unconscious, they have alleged. Angry at their detention and alleged harassment and assault by the police, the farmers have told TNM that they will not leave Chennai without meeting either Stalin or Cabinet Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. 

Arul told TNM that on February 20, a delegation of 300 farmers from various villages around the proposed Melma SIPCOT site were preparing to leave for Chennai in order to meet the chief minister. At the time, Thiruvannamalai police stopped them and promised to get an audience with the CM for just five representatives. At the time, 10 members of the 300-strong delegation had called a hunger strike until the meeting was arranged. “All the police did was to take the protestors to the hospital and so that they could be forced to take glucose. As they did not arrange any meeting, 23 of us came to Chennai to meet the CM in person and submit our petition. We were taken into custody as soon as we reached the Secretariat. Two others who were on the way to the Secretariat ahead of us, were stopped at the Anna Square bus stop by police and assaulted. The police demanded to know if they were carrying the petition with them and they beat them up,” Arul further adds. 

Another farmer, Dhivya, who has also been detained, confirmed the assault and further told TNM, “One person has sustained injuries on his face. He has already undergone surgery in the past and has a rod inside his skull. He told the police this, but they kept hitting him. The second person was hit on the mouth and stabbed on the head with a pen. The police did not take him to hospital until he nearly fell unconscious several hours later at the community centre.” Dhivya also said that if the Melma SIPCOT were to come up as proposed she would lose both her home and one acre of land. 

In November last year, the state government had evoked the Goondas Act against Arul and six others, alleging that he was ‘instigating’ farmers. The charges were dropped in January after widespread condemnation from the public. Now, EV Velu, the state Minister for Public works, Highways and Minor Ports, has claimed in Assembly that those who were charged alongside Arul are not really farmers and that they do not own any land. Denying these claims, Arul said that he and the union had wanted to meet the CM to submit their petition against the Melma SIPCOT and the minister. 

Uma, another farmer who has been detained, told TNM that she stands to lose two acres of land because of the proposed Melma SIPCOT. “This kind of high-handedness by police cannot happen without the knowledge of the chief minister. We are resolute in our stance. We will not leave Chennai until we can meet either Chief Minister Stalin or Udhayanidhi Stalin and submit our petition to them,” she said.