Eight, including 5 women, briefly held in Chennai for staging anti-CAA protests by drawing 'rangolis'; DMK slams police action

Chennai: Eight people, including five women, were detained briefly on Sunday when they staged an anti-CAA protest by drawing ‘kolams’ (rangoli), police said. Opposition DMK hit out at the AIADMK government for the police action, saying the detained persons were only exercising their right to protest. The eight were picked up for holding the protest without permission and causing inconvenience to others, a senior police official said adding they were later let off. Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act are continuing in several parts of Tamil Nadu by political parties and civil society groups for the past several days.

Chennai: Police releases the seven persons who were detained earlier today in Besant Nagar over charges of unlawful assembly and for making rangoli against #CitizenshipAmendmentAct, without prior permission. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/jcj0hCjFA4

— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2019

On Sunday, the group of eight held the protest in the Besant Nagar locality in South Chennai. They used the ‘kolams’ to express opposition to the CAA and National Register of Citizens and National Population Register and raised slogans “No to NRC” and “No to NPR” before police took them into custody. “We warned them and later let them off,” the police official added. Those detained alleged they were manhandled and their phones snatched by police. DMK President MK Stalin and party Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi slammed the police action. In a tweet, Stalin hit out at the AIADMK government and said the police “has not even allowed the basic right under the Constitution” to voice dissent. Kanimozhi also criticised the government for the police action against the anti-CAA protesters.

அலங்கோல அதிமுக அரசின் அராஜகம் நாளுக்கு நாள் அதிகரிக்கிறது.

சென்னை பெசண்ட் நகரில் #CAA வுக்கு கோலம் வரைந்து தங்கள் எதிர்ப்பை வெளிப்படுத்திய,
6 பேரை அரசியலமைப்புச் சட்டம் வழங்கிய அடிப்படை உரிமைகளைக்கூட அனுமதிக்காத இந்தத் தரங்கெட்ட எடப்பாடி அரசின் காவல்துறை கைது செய்துள்ளது. pic.twitter.com/Ran4FE5r2V

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) December 29, 2019

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