MADURAI: A complaint of land grab has been filed here, that indicts people close to M K Alagiri—Union Minister, Madurai strongman and son of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi. The list includes DMK chief executive committee member S R Gopi, urban district secretary G Thalapathi, tehsildar Manickam, and a few others.
It was filed by Pappa and Sivanandi of Tirumangalam, regarding a 5.14 acre plot in Sengulam village near Tirumangalam.
The couple stated that they had obtained loans from Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) for setting up a mill in 2005, but suffered severe losses.
With involvement of some officials of TIIC, they were forced to part with the land worth Rs 5.14 crore, against a paltry liability of Rs 1.4 crore, by giving power of attorney (POA) to an unknown person, who they subsequently found was one Nareshkumar. But the POA was cancelled by the couple, as the pending amount was not paid by June 2009. Later, a person claiming to be Nareshkumar, came with police escort to threaten the couple for cancelling his POA, according to the petition. In distress, the family approached Manickam, a tehsildar and a relative, for help, but he forced the family to visit the office of Alagiri-henchman Pottu Suresh, where Thalapathi, Gopi, Moogambigai Sethuraman, Tirumangalam Union Chairman Kodi Chandrasekaran and two others, advised them to transfer the land to them, so that they could tackle Nareshkumar.
After a few days, the family was beaten up and forcibly taken to the Sub-Registrar Office, where they were asked to give POA to one Krishnasamy, whose spouse Indragandhi was a DMK member and Thirunagar Municipality Chairman. The family was offered only Rs 40 lakh, and was not given the rest of the money.
Speaking to The Sunday Standard, Superintendent of Police Asra Garg said a complaint had been filed against the DMK members, and investigations were on.
Meanwhile, ‘Attack’ Pandi, known to be close to Alagiri and key suspect in the attack on Tamil daily Dinakaran, was on Friday held by the police in connection with a separate land grab case. He is the first DMK man to be arrested in Madurai. The case, which had been suppressed during the DMK regime, was fast-forwarded by the new AIADMK govt.
According to police sources, Pandi’s cousin and nephew, who had leased the prime property from a couple in Thirumalai Naicker Palace area, refused to vacate it after the lease expired, using Pandi’s political clout as threat. But after P Kannappan assumed charge as Police Commissioner, all land grab petitions were scrutinised. Pandi and his associates were interrogated on Friday night, and subsequently arrested.
‘Attack’ Pandi was made chairman of the Agricultural Marketing Committee during the DMK regime. He was stripped of the post when the Dinakaran case neared its verdict.
