The Madurai Rural Police registered a case against DMK south zone organising secretary and Union Minister M.K. Alagiri, Deputy Mayor P.M. Mannan, Melur DMK union secretary Raghupathi, Othapatti Thirugnanam and 50 others in connection with an assault case.
A senior police officer said that following a complaint from Tahsildar and Assistant Returning Officer (Melur Assembly segment) Kalimuthu, the Keelavalavu police registered a case on Friday night.
The charges include unlawful assembly, waylaying, assaulting government servant and violating prohibitory orders, among others. The Union Minister had been to a temple near Keelavalavu, where the flying squad too arrived and videographed the visit.
Annoyed at this, some men allegedly roughed up the videographer and a wordy altercation followed. As the situation looked tense, police officers escorted the squad out of the venue.
According to an eyewitness account, some of the local people at the temple objected to the presence of the officials and prevented the videographer from recording the event. While a DMK functionary forced the team members to keep away, the youth suddenly roughed up the videographer. Tense moments followed.
The Tamil Nadu Revenue Officials' Association has demanded adequate protection for its members to discharge their duty during the election and urged the police to arrest all the accused figuring in the FIR failing which the association has threatened to boycott poll work.
Mr. Kalimuthu said that they went to the spot as per the Election Commission of India directive.
“We did what we are expected to perform as per the guidelines.”
Another official said that the DMK functionaries abused them.
A complaint was lodged, after which the police filed a case.
