DMK leader and former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin was briefly detained on Saturday at Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu during a protest. His detention came on the day two other DMK leaders, including a former minister, were arrested on charges of seizing land, police said.
Tiruvarur is located near Thanjavur, the rice granary of the state around 325 km from here. Stalin, on a tour of that region, was held when he and other party leaders protested the arrest of party functionary Poondi Kalaivannan in connection with a case.
According to police, a case was registered against Kalaivannan for allegedly preventing students from attending school on Friday and also for being responsible for a bus accident the same day near Tiruvarur in which a student lost his life. When police went to arrest Kalaivannan, the DMK men led by Stalin protested and were arrested. Stalin was later set free.
Earlier on Saturady, two DMK leaders, including a former minister, were arrested on charges of seizing land. Former minister and senior leader Veerapandi S. Arumugam was arrested in Salem, 350 km from here, where he had gone to mark his attendance as he was out on bail since July 27 in another land grabbing case, a police officer told IANS. Arumugam was arrested on the basis of a new land grab complaint, the officer said.
A local court remanded Arumugam in judicial custody for 15 days and he was lodged in Coimbatore central prison. DMK legislator from Chepauk constituency, J. Anbazhagan, was also arrested here and was taken to Tirupur, around 380 km away, in another land grab case. Speaking to reporters, Stalin said the AIADMK government is trying to weaken the DMK’s state wide protest Monday (August 1) against the false cases being foisted against his partymen. According to him, the AIADNK rulers were answerable to people and the court for these incidents.
However, police later said that Stalin was not arrested or detained but was taken away as he was obstructing the flow of traffic. DMK president M. Karunanidhi said the actions of the AIADMK government were going beyond limits. He said the party will go ahead with its protest programme August 1. Meanwhile, DMK men in most of the districts in Tamil Nadu protested Stalin's detention, party leaders said. Hundreds of DMK men have been arrested across the state.