Activist advocate P. Rathinam has filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to transfer a woman teacher of a Kallakurichi private school, which was in the eye of a storm following the death of a Class XII girl last month, from a prison in Salem to the one in Tiruchi.
Claiming that the teacher Kiruthika was being threatened by school secretary Shanti, who was also lodged at the Salem women prison, the lawyer said, it was necessary to shift the teacher out of that prison at the earliest. He also sought for a direction to identify all innocent people picked up by the police.
The lawyer pointed out that The Hindu had published an article titled ‘Fear grips residents near Shakthi School in Kallakurichi’ on August 8 and claimed that the police had arrested several innocent people in connection with the violence and rioting that broke out last month, leading to the ransacking of the school building.
The petitioner also insisted upon a direction to the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court to issue appropriate instructions to all Judicial Magistrates in the State to provide the assistance of lawyers through the District Legal Services Authority to all those who required it when being produced for remand.
