Tamaraikani arrested

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

CHENNAI, JUNE 2. The former AIADMK MLA, Mr. R. Tamaraikani, was arrested by police here at around 10-30 a.m. today and taken by road to Srivilliputhur.

Mr. Tamaraikani, picked up from the MLA Hostel at the Government Estate, said the arrest was ``pre-planned with the sole intention of preventing him from joining the DMK on June 3''. Expelled from the AIADMK prior to the recent Assembly polls, the former MLA announced yesterday that he would join the DMK on that date.

A warrant for his arrest had been obtained by the police after he failed to appear before the Judicial Magistrate II Court at Srivilliputhur in connection with the charges of criminal intimidation.

A special police party from the town arrived in Chennai on Friday night to effect the arrest. The Srivilliputhur town police had registered four cases - all related to charges of criminal intimidation against the accused at various times.

Based on a complaint given by his son, the Srivilliputhur AIADMK MLA, Mr. T. Inbatamizhan, a case under section 203 of the IPC had been registered against him. The case relates to a complaint from Mr. Tamaraikani, before the polls, that his son, who had been given the AIADMK ticket, had been kidnapped by the AIADMK high command. Mr. Inbatamizhan, in his counter complaint, had said his father was lying and none had kidnapped him.

A former personal assistant to Mr. Tamaraikani, Mr. Krishnan, now with Mr. Inbatamizhan, had complained to the police that he had been threatened by the former MLA. A similar complaint of criminal intimidation had also been preferred by a councillor of Srivilliputhur Municipality, Mr. Santhanamurthy, against the former MLA, who is the chairman of the municipality.

Police claimed that a case under section 341 and 506/1 had also been registered against Mr. Tamaraikani for allegedly threatening a lorry owner with lethal weapons for transporting cattle for slaughter to Kerala in July last year. The lorry was stopped during a protest march organised by the former MLA against cattle slaughter.

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