Around 50 protestors were detained near Marina Beach by the Chennai Police on Monday during their demonstration against the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, The News Minute reported. Around 100 activists, writers and professors had gathered near the beach earlier in the day.
Freelance journalist T Venkat told the website that they had permission to go till the Gandhi statue. “When we tried to go near the statue to garland it, the police refused to let us because we were raising slogans. So, we told them we will go silently, but by then they had decided to pick us up.”
The police dragged the protestors when they refused to get into the vehicle, alleged Venkat. He added that the police wrote down all their names, but it is not clear whether they will be arrested.
Earlier on Monday, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, several journalists in Delhi had also staged protests against the recent spate of violence against the media. The protestors formed a human chain to condemn the attack on journalists.
At least four journalists in Delhi and Noida have so far filed police complaints, saying they had received death threats on WhatsApp over the past two weeks. The police are yet to identify the perpetrators.
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