CHENNAI: In the run-up to the recent Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the state was rife with allegations of land grabbing by DMK functionaries. All towns and districts were under sway of DMK bigwigs, and complaints about their cronies, who went about snatching land from all and sundry, abounded. But ever since AIADMK stormed to power though, the tables started turning on the land-grabbers.
“Stringent steps would be taken to retrieve all land and property snatched from people by Karunanidhi’s family, DMK ministers and their henchmen, and returned to the rightful owners”: AIADMK’s poll manifesto had read.
Sticking to this promise, Jayalalithaa set up anti-land grabbing cells across the state as soon as she took charge. Emboldened by the government’s support for their cause, close to 600 people have registered complaints at the cells so far. Many people, who had their property taken away forcefully, but had kept mum fearing a backlash, stepped up to file their complaints at last.
The result: even the smallest of DMK functionaries now face court cases. While bigwigs are seldom personally involved in such affairs, most of their henchmen have fallen into this net.
Take for instance the case of Mayor of Madurai, G Thenmozhi, who sought anticipatory bail fearing arrest in a land grab case. A close associate of Union Chemicals Minister M K Alagiri, Thenmozhi had worn an air of invincibility until recently.
For Alagiri, Madurai was a fiefdom. He played benevolent don, with malevolent henchmen. His word was the law, and he treated the state machinery as his own, while his sidekicks ran amok, grabbing what pleased them. The people of Madurai could do little but stand back and watch Alagiri’s reign of terror, with nowhere to go and complain to.
Elsewhere, another DMK functionary, Sundarrajan, and his wife Rangammal, had started building on vacant land near a corporation community hall. An advocate had filed a case against them, and Thenmozhi sought anticipatory bail even as the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court heard the case.
Just like Alagiri in Madurai, other senior DMK ministers had their own fiefdoms at different corners of the state—K N Nehru in Tiruchirapalli, V S Arumugam in Salem, and K Ponmudy in Cuddalore and a number of other small boroughs for example. None of them though, got any time for quiet introspection of their party’s poll debacle. Though no cases of land grab have come up against them personally, the hits have been getting closer with each round. They have been working overtime to mitigate the backlash of the past five years. A Rajendiran, son of former agriculture minister V S Arumugam, had to settle out-of-court with a man who accused him of grabbing three acres. The complainant, Muthukumar, withdrew his case within 24 hours.
Other DMK cronies have not been as lucky. R Arivudainambi, DMK’s corporation council zonal chairman in Tiruchirapalli, is among the bunch of unlucky DMK land-grabbers. A special police team recently arrested the 60-year-old, after a complaint by K Kamaraj of Woraiyur, for refusing to vacate the house where he had been a tenant for two decades. He also illegally occupied the adjoining plot, threatening those who raised objections. But for Jayalalithaa returning to power in Tamil Nadu, the police would not have cracked down on him, say people of Tiruchy. The Anti-Land Grabbing Special Wing is expected to take action against more such DMK cronies in days to come.
Another habitual land-grabber and local thug, Kodamudi Sekar, was arrested by the police about a month ago and booked under Goonda Act, to the relief of locals whom he terrorised.
In Coimbatore, there are a number of cases against the party crooks, much to the delight of the despairing populace. Coimbatore DMK vice-president E Anandan and Salem DMK councillor Auto Manickam have been arrested in separate cases of cheating. In Chennai, M K Senthil, Perungudi area secretary, is absconding. A doctor filed a case accusing him of grabbing his land worth Rs 3.5 crore. The doctor and his daughter had been threatened, if they did not give up their land.
Similar cases have been filed against DMK councillors and functionaries across the state. Around 600 cases are with the Anti Grabbing Wing, Central Crime Branch, Tamil Nadu Police. With other cases, land grabbing has been hidden under a heap of cases of cheating.
A large number of these cases, involve DMK men reaching a sale agreement with a land owner. They would pay a part of the agreed amount and promise to pay the remainder, at the time of, or after registration. They would get the land registered under their names and then refuse to pay up. Cases are also emerging of DMK leaders who ran mafia-style operations, demanding a certain percentage as commission on every sale in their areas.
The AIADMK government has reportedly started preparing dossiers on all senior DMK leaders and their cronies. In short, for all who were involved in land grabbing of various kinds during the DMK rule between 2006-2011, the crackdown has just begun.