Thread by @sandhyaravishan

Since a number of people have been asking about the details of the police complaint I have filed with the Commissioner of Police, Chennai. Thread below with the key points.

I had previously lodged a complaint with your esteemed self on 11 September 2017 regarding the incident of my bike being photographed by an unknown person, as a sequence of events attempting to intimidate and harass me, following my exposes on illegal beach sand mining in the..

..state. The latest incident is one of a clear violation of my Constitutional right to privacy. It amounts to stalking and harassment under the law as well. On 27 August 2018, an online portal called savukkuonline.com has published a blog titled “Kolamaavu Sandhya”...

..and has made defamatory and untrue allegations about me. Apart from that, the site has uploaded some CCTV footage of me meeting a source at a coffee shop. By itself the visuals are not damaging in any manner but the fact remains that this is a gross violation and...

..infringement of my right to privacy, which the Honourable Supreme Court has recently upheld as a fundamental right available to every citizen of India. The coffee shop from which the CCTV footage has been taken is called Anokhi and is situated on Chamiers Road, Nandanam.

It is a coffee shop that I frequent and meet a number of sources and contacts at the venue. I have spoken to the owners of Anokhi who have assured me that they do not download any of the CCTV footage unless the police asks for the same.

It is therefore evident that ‘Savukku’ has received the CCTV footage from the police. Who that police personnel is and why he/she handed over the footage to ‘Savukku’ so that they may publish the same on their site, remains a mystery.

Sir I also have strong reason to believe that a senior IPS officer is colluding with the mining mafia in order to follow me, film and photograph me – this same officer is the one who had informed a senior journalist with a mainstream English daily in Chennai that...

...I am being followed and had allegedly even shown photographs of me taken without my knowledge or consent to the senior journalist in question. It is frightening that a senior officer can abuse the power of his uniform in this fashion to target and malign a citizen...

...at the behest of the powerful beach sand miners in the state. If those who are meant to protect, instead attack the citizens illegally, who do the citizens turn to for help? Sir, my fundamental right to privacy guaranteed to me by the Constitution of India has been...

...grossly violated repeatedly. My Constitutional right to occupation too has been repeatedly violated and I am being subjected to attacks from various fronts by powerful vested interests who wish to intimidate me and prevent me from carrying out my duty as a journalist.

As you are aware, from the previous complaints lodged with your predecessor and with you, there is a continuous effort to put me under surveillance, harass and attempt to intimidate me in an effort to force me to stop my investigative reporting on illegal beach sand mining.

I am listing out below a brief gist of the various complaints that I have filed on the issue.
30 January 2017: Filed first complaint with then Chennai city Commissioner of Police S George about the associates of a powerful beach sand mining company, divulging my mobile number...

...on social media, following which I received rape threats. A complaint numbered 435/CCB/2017 was lodged.

14 March 2017: Lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police again. An email from one Niyas Ahmad, an associate of the miner, was sent to Tamil magazine group Vikatan

..in objection to an interview that they had published with the then Tirunelveli Collector Mr Karunagaran. Although the email is apparently an objection letter, Ahmad states that “5 detective agencies have been hired" by the miner to follow and videograph me.

Apart from this Ahmad claims that I have been demanding a bribe of Rs 200 crores from the miner and that I am “pimping” for some officers. He states that the miner has a video of me “smoking” and "plotting” with an officer in a coffee shop to “bring down" the miner.

This appears to be a reference to the CCTV footage recently put out by ‘Savukku’.
20 March 2017: Submitted an exhaustive complaint to both Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran as well as Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan. The complaint was forwarded by the DGP for action to the CoP.

11 September 2017: Lodged a complaint with Chennai city Commissioner of Police AK Viswanathan, stating that there was a threat to my life. In that complaint I wrote – “I am writing to bring to your notice a strange incident that a lady working as a housemaid at my residence...

... informed me about. Around Wednesday or Thursday (06 or 07 September 2017), she arrived early to work at around 5am, rather than the usual 6am. On this day, she has informed me that she watched an unknown person stop his bike near my bike...

..(which is parked outside my residence) and take two photographs – one of the registration number/licence plate and the other of the bike itself.”

Sir I am deeply concerned and anguished that no action has been taken or progress made on any of the complaints so far.

Violation of Constitutional rights by members of the police force themselves is a matter of alarm. I request you to take stringent action against ‘Savukku’ and its owner Mr Shankar for brazenly and deliberately violating my fundamental right to privacy as a citizen of India...

..with malafide intent. I also request you to launch an investigation into who gave the CCTV footage to ‘Savukku’ and that stringent action be taken against the police officer concerned. I would also request you to kindly forward my complaint to the necessary authorities...

..to initiate departmental action against the senior police officer who is colluding with the miners in an effort to malign and harass a woman journalist. I sincerely hope that this complaint will be acted upon as there has been no progress in any of my complaints last year.

As a journalist I should be able to discharge my duties without fear in my own state.

ends/