CHENNAI: Former minister and AIADMK legal advisory committee member CVe Shanmugam on Saturday lodged a complaint with Royapettah police urging them to initiate criminal proceedings against former chief minister O Panneerselvam (OPS) and those who accompanied him to AIADMK headquarters on July 11 “to break open and ransack the office, and illegally take away many documents and articles.”
When the AIADMK faced a similar situation in 1988, the headquarters was sealed by the revenue department. “But none broke open the office and indulged in violence. OPS, who lost the goodwill of the cadre and stooped to the level of a goonda, entered the headquarters by breaking open the doors. He also took away invaluable documents and articles in his van and the entire media telecast that,” Shanmugam said.
Talking to reporters after lodging the complaint, Shanmugam said: “The police did not act on a complaint from the AIADMK headquarters about the violent incidents that took place on July 11. When the headquarters was unsealed on July 21, we were shocked to see how the office had been ransacked by those who accompanied OPS on his orders on July 11.”
Shanmugam accused OPS and others of breaking open Jayalalithaa’s chamber and “sitting there”. “... OPS should be ashamed of calling himself an AIADMK member because of the way he conducted himself on July 11 at the party headquarters,” he added.
Asked whether OPS had no right to enter the headquarters as the party treasurer, Shanmugam said: “In the capacity of the treasurer or the coordinator, OPS could view the documents at the office but had no right to take any of the assets of the party to his residence as they belonged to the AIADMK.”
Land deeds, bank papers among missing items
Here’s a list of articles CVe said were looted from headquarters