Land grabbing case: Former DMK MLA in police net

In the continuing crackdown by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government on land grabbing, a former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member of Legislative Assembly was on Tuesday arrested for his alleged role in a case. Ranganathan was arrested in Chennai based on a complaint, the police said.

DMK senior leader Veerapandi S Arumugam, Chepauk constituency MLA J Anbazhagan and close aides of Union minister M K Alagiri, have already been arrested in connection with land grab charges.

 Turning up the heat on the DMK, the Tamil Nadu government had formed a special cell to exclusively deal with the land grabbing cases.

DMK President M Karunanidhi has termed the arrests as 'vendetta politics' but TN Chief Minister Jayalalithaa denied the charge, saying the special the police cells were acting on "genuine" complaints by "affected" persons with no political link.

The DMK had staged a statewide protest on Monday, saying the police were "foisting" such cases against its members.

The crackdown is the result of an electoral promise by Jayalalithaa during the assembly elections that she would take action against land grabbing during the DMK rule.