Eighteen persons were arrested in the last fortnight in connection with land grab cases in the city, a top police official said on Tuesday.
“A total of 90 cases have been registered in connection with land grabbing charges and 18 persons have been arrested in the last fortnight,” Police Commissioner J K Tripathy said.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, he said he could not quantify the value of recovered land since it was ‘dynamic.’ However, speedy progress was on in all cases, he said.
The AIADMK government had announced setting up special cells in police department to deal with land grab cases, soon after it came to power after the April 13 polls.
To a question on the complaint against Sun TV management by self-styled Godman Nithyananda and actor Ranjitha and some complaints filed against them by some fringe groups, he said a special team was probing all the cases.
The godman and Ranjitha were purportedly shown in a sleaze video that was aired in Marans-owned Sun TV and published in their “Dinkaran” daily and a bi-weekly magazine Nakkeran.
They had claimed their pictures had been morphed and had filed criminal complaint against the media organisations.
Some fringe groups had filed complaints against Nithyananda and the actor.
To a question on the visit of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to Chennai as part of her two-day official visit, Mr. Tripathy said all adequate security measures were in place.
Responding to a query on the steps in the wake of last week’s Mumbai blasts, he said police had a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and steps were being taken according to that.
Constant vigil was on and it specifically covered vital installations among others he said adding surprise checks at lodges were also being undertaken besides the police watching out for suspicious persons and objects.
