MADURAI : Former Union Minister MK Alagiri and 16 others were acquitted in a case involving an attack on a tahsildar during 2011 Assembly election campaign.
According to the prosecution, on April 1, 2011, the tahsildar M Kalimuthu, who was the assistant returning officer for Melur constituency, had ordered for videographing a group of DMK cadre campaigning at the Valladikkarar temple in Melur.
Opposing it Alagiri and his group attacked Kalimuthu, the prosecution alleged.
Based on Kalimuthu’s complaint, the Keelavalavu police had registered a case against Alagiri, former deputy mayor of Madurai Corporation PM Mannan, then DMK union secretary A Raghupathy and 18 DMK cadre under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC. The police also filed a charge sheet against them in August 2011.
However, during the trial, Kalimuthu told the court he was not attacked by the accused. Since he and the photographer had entered the temple without removing their footwear, they were stopped by the temple staff and were told to leave the premises, Kalimuthu added. Several other witnesses in the case also turned hostile.
On Friday, Judicial Magistrate I of Madurai, B Muthulakshmi, acquitted Alagiri, Mannan and 15 others in the case. Four other accused — Karuppanan, Ramalingam, Thirugnanam and Solai- died during the pendency of the trial.