Police arrested Madurai urban district DMK secretary G Thalapathy and three others in connection with a land grabbing case here on Tuesday.
Thalapathy and his relatives, allegedly grabbed Rs 15 crore worth of land belonging to Meenakshi Mill workers at Thiagarajar Colony in Pasumalai. The arrested were B Venkatesan ( 40), R Ravichandran (52) of Pasumalai, and T Malaiyarasan (63), a private company executive of Tahsildar Nagar
His arrest was based on a complaint filed by M Murugesan (47), a lorry driver. He said that his father Malaichamy, an employee of Meenakshi Mill, was allotted a house and a vacant plot at Thiagarajar Colony.
After Malaichamy’s death in 2003, Murugesan approached a mill official for ownership transfer and was asked to pay Rs 72,000 for the house and Rs 52,000 for the 1,225 sq ft vacant land in the year 2007.
Even after payment, mill officials didn’t register the properties in his name and asked him to meet Thalapathy. In 2008, Thalapathy’s relatives attempted to kill his family members, police said. Murugesan’s wife Sumathy filed a complaint with the Tiruparankundram police but no action was taken. They kept threatening Murugesan’s family.
Thalapathy, Venkatesan and Ravichandran fenced off the vacant land. After another complaint to the SP, the house was transferred to the Murugesan’s name but the vacant land was registered in Venkatesan’s name fraudulently, police said.