Land grabbing: Ex-DMK minister, MLA arrested

In the continuing crackdown by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government on land grabbing, former Tamil Nadu Minister and senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Veerapandi Arumugam and his party MLA J Anbalagan were arrested on Saturday in different cases.

A DMK strongman in the region, Arumugam was arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) police in a fresh land grabbing case when he appeared before it in Salem on Saturday morning as per the anticipatory bail conditions set out by the Madras high court in two other cases registered earlier.

Salem Police Commissioner Chokkalingam told PTI that Arumugam was arrested in the case registered in Annathanapatti Police Station on a land grabbing complaint against him.

The arrest of Arumugam, DMK District Secretary, triggered sporadic violence with his followers pelting stones on buses at eight places in Salem, injuring two drivers, police said.

Police pickets have been posted throughout the district and Armed Reserve Police personnel are on patrol, they said.

Anbalagan, South Chennai DMK District Secretary, was arrested from his house in Chennai by a police team from Tirupur in an early morning swoop.

Arumugam was produced before Judicial Magistrate Srividya at her residence and remanded to 15 days judicial custody. He was taken to Coimbatore central prison.

The latest case against Arumugam relates to a complaint alleging land grabbing in Naraswathipatti locality in Salem, police said.

A Judicial Magistrate court here had enlarged Arumugam on bail on July 27 after his three-day custodial interrogation by the CCB police in connection with the earlier cases relating to land grabbing in Angammal Colony and Premier Flour mills.