In yet another blow to Union Minister and DMK south zone organising secretary M K Alagiri, his close aide and former deputy mayor P M Mannan was among 20 DMK cadre arrested here on Friday for putting up graffiti praising their leader in view of his birthday, on January 30, on public walls across the Temple City.
Those arrested were produced in the judicial magistrate court and released later in the evening.
Three cases, including one under the Tamil Nadu Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, were slapped on Mannan, DMK sixth ward secretary Saravanan and functionaries in-charge of respective areas like Moovandran of Sammattipuram, Velmurugan, Singathevan and Thanikaimalai of Karimedu by the Karimedu and Subramaniapuram Police.
This action came after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently disposed a case filed by the DMK lawyer’s wing organiser Nandagoplan, challenging the erasing of the graffiti heralding Alagiri’s next birthday.
The petition said that the Minister’s supporters had put up graffiti on the walls after obtaining due permission from the owners of the premises.
A representation to the Corporation Commissioner, seeking permission for the graffiti ‘without partiality,’ was also submitted to the court. However, the court disposed the case saying that it was the prerogative of the Collector and Corporation Commissioner to decide on issuing permission and that the court could not interfere in the matter.
On Friday, when he was brought to the police station, former deputy mayor Mannar told reporters that the police was acting in a partial manner.
“Though I lodged a complaint about such graffiti put up by other political parties, they took action only against us,” he said.
When asked for comment on the issue, Deputy Commissioner of Police R Thirunavukkarasu told Express,
“We have registered around 45 cases against all political party functionaries who indulged in wall painting in public places without getting the legal permission. Even after the city police warned them, they committed the offence. Therefore, the police registered cases against them.”
It was only recently that the Union Minister charged that the district administration had targeted him and had specifically removed only graffiti painted by DMK functionaries for his birthday celebrations.
