After the habeas corpus writ petition was dismissed by the Madras High Court denying release of folk-artiste Kovan on Monday, the lawyers are now trying to prevent attempts of the authorities to detain Kovan under National Security Act.
A division bench of the Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a habeas corpus writ petition filed by Kovan’s friend V Venkatesan seeking his release. He had said that there was an inordinate delay in completing his arrest and the pre-arrest formalities were not followed by the police.
During the hearing of the case, the assistant public prosecutor presented the FIR of Kovan’s arrest and proved that a case was filed on October 28, 2015. He also claimed that Kovan was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Egmore and remanded in judicial custody.
The High Court judges stated from the evidence it is clear that the authorities followed the law and registered an FIR and said that Kovan’s is not in illegal custody. The judges denied the release of Kovan, according to NIE report.
Kovan’s lawyer Milton told TOI, “We have information that the government is planning to invoke provisions of NSA against him. Therefore, we have now filed a fresh writ petition in the high court seeking to stop the preventive detention.”
Milton added that the petition will be up for hearing on Tuesday or Wednesday.
AIADMK supported the police action and slammed its political rivals, including DMK chief M Karunanidhi for supporting the artist who had shown “disrespect to chief minister J Jayalalithaa”.
In a column “Mangy dogs back rabid hound” in the party organ, Dr Namdhu MGR called the singer a clown and accused him of using derogatory words to criticize the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.