MADURAI
Following allegations that a newly elected ward councillor, associated with the DMK was abducted, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the police to produce the councillor before it on Thursday.
Taking a serious view of the issue, a Division Bench of Justices T. Raja and B. Pugalendhi observed that if he was not produced, then the Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police should appear in person and submit a status report in the case.
The court was hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by S. Raja, son of Sathaiah, Thiruvarangam ward councillor in Mudukulathur panchayat union, Ramanathapuram district. He claimed that his father was abducted on January 3, a day after the results of the local body polls were announced.
However, on January 6, his father’s abductors had brought him to the Block Development Office, Mudukulathur, for the swearing in ceremony, he said, adding that after the swearing in his father was again taken away forcibly and their attempts to secure him failed.
He said influential people were trying to prevent his father from exercising his voting right in the election to the post of Chairman of Mudukulathur panchayat union. He complained that the police were not taking effective steps to secure his father.
