COIMBATORE: Owners of brick kilns in Thadagam valley besieged the house of a whistleblower at Chinna Thadagam on Sunday.
While the man has alleged that the brick-kiln owners threatened to kill him if he fails to withdraw his petition against the red-sand mining in the area, the Brick Manufacturers’ Association has denied these charges. They had only visited his house to talk to him about not spreading rumours about the brick kilns, they maintained.
Around 50 people, led by the association President P Dharmaraj and DMK North District Secretary C R Ramachandran, showed up at the house of S Ganesh on Sunday.
They reportedly threatened to harm him and his family if he failed to stop spreading ‘false’ information about the red-sand mining for brick kilns. They used unparliamentary words, said Ganesh in his complaint to Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar.
They besiegers wanted him to withdraw a petition he has filed at the High Court about red-sand mining, Ganesh added. Sujit Kumar said that an investigation has been ordered on the complaint. The action would be taken accordingly, he added.
Dharmaraj admitted that they had been Ganesh’s house but said that they did not do anything wrong or use derogatory words.
“As he is spreading rumours about the brick kilns, we went to his house to get justice from him. He is my relative too. We were at his house for about an hour. We did not do anything wrong. However, he used derogatory words against us and filed a complaint stating untrue accusations,” he alleged.