The Salem city police on Monday invoked the Goondas Act, a preventive detention law, against former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam, who is in Vellore Central prison in connection with a criminal case.
City Police Commissioner K.C. Mahali issued the order for his detention under the Act and a team of police personnel served the order on Mr. Arumugam at the prison in Vellore. He has been remanded for allegedly abetting an attack on the residents of Angammal Colony here in the early hours of June 3.
The Commissioner said Mr. Arumugam was being detained under the Goondas Act because he was an accused in five land grab cases and also for assaulting residents of the colony. Mr. Arumugam is the second accused in this case to be detained under the Goondas Act, after Koushika Bhoopathy, his associate.
Last year, Mr. Arumugam was arrested in connection with the five land grab cases, but was subsequently released on bail. On June 4, he was arrested by the Salem City Police from his Chennai residence in connection with the assault case. He was lodged at Puzhal prison and later shifted to the Vellore prison.
The city police have so far arrested 26 persons in connection with the June 3 incident and a search is on for four others.
