At the Palayamkottai Central Prison, caste lines are drawn as clearly as the cell bars. Prisoners of certain communities are housed separately supposedly to avoid clashes. So, when an MBC inmate and a BC inmate squared off during meal distribution on Saturday, all hell broke loose. In quick time, jail staff intervened and dispersed other inmates who had gathered to offer support on community lines. But the media picked it up and the jail officials scrambled -- not to just restore order, but to sniff out the leak. The prison department launched an inquiry to trace the source of the leak and issued a statement denying that such an incident had occurred. — Thinakaran Rajamani
Dogged by threats
In Coimbatore city, even sniffer dogs have fan clubs. Every time the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad team and their canine colleagues sniff through a false bomb threat, the names of the dogs make it to the news. Now, pranksters are getting creative, naming those very dogs in their fake threat mails and daring the police to “fetch” the bombs. Talk about barking up the wrong tree. — R Kirubakaran
From fan to foe
Once upon a time, Udhayanidhi Stalin wasn’t the Deputy Chief Minister. He was an actor-producer with a smartphone and no filter. As he rose quickly through the ranks — from MLA to minister and now deputy CM —old interviews resurfaced in which he had declared that politics “wasn’t for him,” reminding everyone of his cinematic past. Now, as he dives deeper into politics, his vintage posts are making a comeback, including one with a colourful choice of words (cuss words) that disappeared faster than a first-day-first-show ticket for a Vijay film. His tweets also show that he was once a fan of Vijay, sending birthday wishes and repeatedly calling him his favourite actor. With Vijay’s fans famously called Anils (squirrels), it seems the deputy chief minister once had the bushiest tail of them all, at least before fanhood turned into political rivalry. - ENS
Buried in trouble
An AIADMK functionary from Udangudi learned the hard way that extramarital affairs can land you neck-deep in trouble literally. The 50-year-old was allegedly kidnapped by his lover’s family at gun point, stripped, buried neck-deep in Thoothukudi’s red sands a week ago. The abductors even took photos and threatened to publicise it if he failed to pay `50 lakh. But as he could not arrange the ransom amount, they left him with a bruised ego and an FIR to remember. The Kulasekarapattinam police have registered a case and it promises to have more layers than a teri dune. — S Godson Wisely Dass
Compiled by Adarsh TR
