DMK urban district secretary G Thalapathy was on Monday re-arrested in connection with a fresh land grab case registered against him.
He was held based on a complaint filed by Balaraman, the assistant secretary of Sri Meenakshi Mills’ former workers welfare associa-tion. According to the complaint, the erstwhile administration of the mills acquired a 9-acre property from private individuals and another 14 acres from the Union and State governments to construct a housing complex for workers.
Certain portions of the acquired property were earmarked for a playground, park, UGD, school, women’s club, gym and school playground. Several conditions were laid down by the government while handing over the land and, as per the agreement, any deviation should have been notified to the relevant authorities.
Against this backdrop, when the government later tried to acquire the land under the Land Ceiling Act, the erstwhile administration reasoned that the land was earmarked for public purposes. However, contrary to the contention, the petition alleged, it was not handed over to the civic body.
When Meenakshi Mill became bankrupt in 1995, the Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited (GHCL) took over. Following the takeover, GHCL directors R S Jalan and Siva Balasubramanian, finance manager Srinivasan and general manager Malaiyarasan conspired and handed over the power of attorney for the land in question to Srinivasan and Neeraj Jalan in contravention of the rules. Then, Srinivasan sold 3.83 acres to Jat Real Estate company — Thalapathy was one of the partners in it — for `1.65 crore. The company, in turn, divided the land into 94 plots and sold 87 of them to persons other than the mill workers at the rate of `2 to `3 lakh. The complaint was verified and it turns out the land, meant for mill workers, valued at `20 crore was frau-dulently registered in the name of the accused. Police arrested G Thlapathy (57), his relative Venkatesan (40), Malaiyarasan, MPR Ravichandran and Krishnapandi. Thalpathy, who was arrested in another land grab case last week, was released on bail only on Sunday.