DMK leader M.K. Stalin and around 40,000 of his party cadres were on Monday detained while staging protests in various parts of Tamil Nadu.
The former deputy chief minister was later released, the police said. The activists of the biggest opposition party in the state were detained as they were protesting the land grab cases registered against some party leaders. The DMK has not been given permission by the AIADMK government to hold the protests. Condemning the refusal of permission, Stalin said here that the previous DMK government had permitted the AIADMK to hold protests.
Stalin, who is also the DMK treasurer, said if such conditions continue to prevail, the party will hold further protests. Ever since the AIADMK has come to power in the state, the DMK has been facing heat on charges of land grab.
Former DMK minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam, who had been freed on bail in a land grab case, was again arrested Saturday morning and lodged in Coimbatore jail. Besides, DMK legislator from Chennai J. Anbazhagan was arrested for another land grab case Saturday.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi has termed the registering of land grab cases against his party members as vendetta politics by the ruling AIADMK. However, chief minister J. Jayalaltihaa has stoutly denied the charge and said that such land grab cases have been lodged even during the DMK regime and only now the police are acting on them.