Chennai police registered cases against Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief coordinator Seeman and 231 others for defying a ban and conducting a protest march on Tuesday, December 31, against the recent sexual assault case in Anna University. According to Chennai police sources, two cases have been filed against those involved in the protest led by Seeman.
Earlier, the NTK announced plans to stage a protest condemning the sexual assault on an engineering student at Anna University. Despite being denied permission, party members gathered at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai. More than 200 people, including 40 women, were detained and removed in buses and vans during the protest.
Later, they were released and Seeman questioned, "Why are protesters being prevented from expressing their outrage? What is the government trying to hide?"
A second year engineering student at the Anna University was sexually assaulted by a man, who was later identified as Gnanasekaran, on December 23. The survivor and her boyfriend were returning to the campus after attending Christmas mass at a nearby church.
Based on her complaint, the police took into custody a local biriyani vendor, Gnanasekaran. He confessed to the crime and Tamil Nadu BJP raised allegations that he was closely associated with the ruling DMK and that he was an office-bearer of the party’s student wing. However, this was denied by the DMK, with Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy telling the media that Gnanasekaran was not a member of the party.