Chennai:
A Tamil Nadu court today issued a non-bailable warrant against activist SP Udhayakumar, who has been leading protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, after he failed to appear for hearing.
Mr Udhayakumar and his wife Meera were summoned in two cases, including alleged unlawful assembly near the nuclear plant, by a court in Valioor in Tirunelvelli district today. While Ms Meera appeared in the court today, Mr Udhayakumar's lawyer argued that the summons received by the anti-nuclear activist's father could not be delivered to him in the prevailing circumstances.
Mr Udhayakumar went underground since September 11, the day he promised to surrender before police. But he was whisked away in a boat by his emotional supporters who rejected his surrender offer.
Mr Udhaykumar, the coordinator of Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), is also facing charges of sedition and waging war against the country for his alleged role in mobilising villagers to campaign against the upcoming Kudankulam nuclear plant. In a bid to evade arrest, over the last few months he remained confined to the villages adjoining Kudankulam.
Although he wanted to court arrest on September 11 after the recent march to the plant which resulted in tear gas and lathicharge, local villagers did not allow him. Activist Arvind Kejriwal too had advised him against courting arrest and wanted him to tackle cases legally. Speaking to the media this morning Mr Udhayakumar said, "The police have surrounded villages, treating us like most wanted terrorists." He added, "Coast guard aircrafts and ships are monitoring us. Women feel scared to take their children out to hospitals. Me and my associates are not hiding but would tackle the cases legally."
Although Mr Udhayakumar had initiated the campaign against the Kudankulam nuclear Plant in the eighties, it was after the recent Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan that local villagers rallied around him and made him the face of the movement against the nuclear power plant. They claim the plant is unsafe and untested and would ruin their life and livelihood.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who had earlier supported the movement and passed a cabinet resolution to halt operations in the plant, made a U-turn later after two government appointed expert committees found the plant to be safe.
The arrest warrant comes at a time when the Rs 13000 crore plant is all set to start the nuclear fuel loading process. The Supreme Court had refused to stay the process but admitted a petition that challenges the nod given for the plant despite non-fulfilment of eleven of the seventeen safety recommendations made by the government-appointed task force after the Fukushima disaster.