CB-CID arrests missing TN activist who was traced to Tirupati

Chennai: An environmental activist, who reportedly went missing after boarding a Madurai-bound train from here a few months ago, was traced to Tirupati and arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a woman, police said Sunday.

Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar told reporters that the activist, RS Mukilan, had been brought to Chennai from Tirupati. "Right now, the CB-CID is investigating the (missing) case on the court's direction," he said. Asked whether he was kidnapped, the minister said it would be known only after the probe was over.

A 44-second video had emerged on Saturday night in which Mukilan was purportedly seen raising slogans against the setting up of an Away from Reactor (AFR) facility at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. In a statement Sunday night, the Crime Branch CID said the activist was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a woman after falsely promising to marry her in Tamil Nadu's Karur district. On how Mukilan was picked up from the railway station in Tirupati, the CB-CID said he had jumped on the railway track in front of passenger train on Saturday morning. He was removed from there by the RPF and it informed the CB-CID about him on Saturday evening.

The RPF team handed him over to the CB-CID in Katpadi and then was taken for a medical check up. He was produced at the CB-CID headquarters office in Chennai on the early hours of Sunday, the release said. Mukilan did not respond to queries on where he had been in all these months. The activist was involved in several protests against the nuclear power plant in Tirunelveli district, the hydrocarbon project in Pudukottai district and the anti-sterlite agitation in Tuticorin district. A missing case had been registered by the state police in February.

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