In a quick succession of events on Friday, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss was granted bail in one case but arrested in another even as his son and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss was picked up by the police at his Chennai residence in the early hours of the day.
In Villupuram, Judicial Magistrate Court-I Judge Sivakumar granted bail to Dr. Ramadoss, PMK president G.K. Mani, A. Ganesh Kumar, MLA, and 361 others who were arrested at the Villupuram junction on April 30 on the charges of attempting to stage a demonstration in defiance of the police orders.
Within hours of the judge granting bail to the PMK founder, the Madurai City Police served a non-bailable warrant around 4-30 p.m. on Dr. Ramadoss, now in the Tiruchi Central Prison, in a case of rioting registered there.
The case pertains to attack on actor Rajinikanth’s fans by security guards of Dr. Ramadoss near the Albert Victor Bridge, Madurai, on April 2, 2004, when the PMK leader was in the city to attend an election meeting. Dr. Ramadoss had been cited as the prime accused in the case, filed by the Vilakkuthoon police. He and 10 others were booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code for rioting with deadly weapons, wrongful restraint and hurting with weapons. Except the PMK founder, others had taken anticipatory bail and one of them had since died.
Anbumani arrested
Earlier in the day, at 6 a.m. in Chennai, a team of policemen from the Kancheepuram district went to the house of Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss to inform him that he was arrested in connection with a case filed by the Mamallapuram police under sections 143, 147 and 188 of IPC read with section 7 (1) (a) of Criminal Law Amendment Act subsequent to the Chithirai festival organised by the PMK and Vanniyar Sangam in Mamallapuram on May 5, 2012.
Later, the former Union Minister was brought to the District Munsif Court Magistrate at Thirukazhukundram around 9-30 a.m. After hearing the submission made by the prosecution, the court remanded him in 15-day judicial custody. He was later lodged at Chennai Central Prison in Puzhal. Immediately, a team of PMK lawyers filed a bail application for Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss and the petition was posted for hearing on Monday (May 6).
Talking to reporters on the court premises, the former Union Minister described the arrests of PMK leaders and cadre as “acts of political vengeance” and claimed that those who were really responsible for the untoward incidents on April 25 this year had not been brought to book.
Meanwhile, black flags were hoisted atop the houses of members of the Vanniyar Sangam and PMK in different parts of the Kancheepuram district, following a call made by the former Union Minister to express their opposition to the arrests.
