Azhagiri, ex-Speaker held in Madurai

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, JUNE 30. Hundreds of DMK cadres, including its frontline leaders, were taken into police custody in the southern districts of Madurai, Sivagangai and Virudhunagar, following the arrest of the former Chief Minister and party chief, Mr. M. Karunanidhi.

The districts, barring a few stray incidents of violence, however, remained calm. The police arrested all those who came to stage agitations. The State Road Transport Corporation in Madurai maintained only skeleton services in urban limits. The windowpanes of six buses were broken in stone-throwing incidents in the city. Bus services, however, were crippled in all the three districts.

Educational institutions in Madurai and surrounding places remained closed. Most of the shopkeepers in the city downed their shutters. A group of DMK cadres, led by the former Aavin Chairman, Mr. P. M. Mannan, was arrested for trying to stage a rail roko, squatting on the track at the Madurai Junction.

The cadres held rail roko at Vellanur in Sivagangai district which resulted in the detention of the Tiruchi-Rameswaram express for more than an hour.

The police resorted to a lathicharge, chasing away a group of DMK cadres in front of the Madurai court complex, who threw stones at passing vehicles. The glasspanes in the windows of few courtrooms were also damaged. Mr. Vanamamalai, Inspector of the Anna Nagar police station suffered a minor injury in the melee.

Most of the leaders were picked up from their homes in the wee hours and the rest arrested when they tried to stage protests. The arrested included the former Speaker Mr. P. T. R. Palanivel Rajan, the former State Ministers, Mr. T. Kirutinan, Mr. Thennavan, the Sattur MLA, Mr. K. K. S. S. Ramachandran, the former MLA of Srivilliputhur, Mr. R. Tamaraikani, the Madurai Mayor, Mr. P. Kulandaivelu, the DMK organising secretary, Mr. Pon. Muthuramalingam and the Madurai Urban DMK secretary, Mr. Veluchamy.

Mr. M. K. Azhagiri, controversial Madurai-based son of Mr. Karunanidhi, was also taken into custody. Mr. Palanivel Rajan, while being escorted to the prison, told TheHindu, that the arrest was not politically unexpected. ``But the way the former Chief Minister was treated by the police was highly atrocious.''

According to the police, all of them were detained under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code and 7 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and were remanded to 15 days' judicial custody. All of them were lodged in the Madurai Central Prison. Meanwhile, the police stepped up vigil in all three districts. Mobile parties were pressed into service on highways.

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