Police asked to book case against Natham Viswanathan

Petitioner claims he was threatened by someone close to the Minister

Chennai;tamil Nadu;02/07/2015 Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Natham Viswanathan adressing in the (CII) 14th Inter National Conference on Revevable Energy held in chennai on Thursday photo;G_Sribharath சென்னை: தமிழ்நாடு: 02-07-2015: 14 வது சர்வதேச புதுப்பிக்கத்தக்க ஆற்றல் மாநாட்டில் மின்சாரத்துறை அமைச்சர் நத்தம் விஸ்வநாதன் கலந்து கொண்டார். படம். க.ஸ்ரீ பரத்

A judicial magistrate court here has directed the Tiruchi city police to book a case against former AIADMK Minister Natham R. Viswanathan and three others on a petition filed by a city-based realtor who claimed that he was threatened by a person claiming to be close to the former Minister, who is now with the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) faction, following a dispute over a land deal.

While issuing the order, judicial magistrate–II, K. Muralitharakannan directed the K.K. Nagar police to investigate the case and file a report in a month. The petitioner C. Loganathan (56) had approached the court after the K.K. Nagar police failed to book a case on his complaints.

Mr. Loganathan, engaged in real estate business, in his petition, said that he owned about 50 acres of land at Iluppur in Pudukottai district. He was approached by V. Kamaraj of Tirunelveli district in June 2015 who claimed to be close to Mr. Viswanathan, the then Electricity Minister, seeking to purchase land for starting a solar power project.

Mr. Kamaraj had approached Mr. Loganathan seeking 200 acres of land, including the 50 acres owned by the latter, for setting up the solar power project. Mr. Kamaraj is said to have paid ₹20 lakh as advance to Mr. Loganathan. Mr. Loganathan claimed he had paid advances for purchase of the remaining 150 acres from other land owners.

Documents pertaining to 200 acres of land were given to Mr. Kamaraj by Mr. Loganathan along with details of the other land owners. After this, Mr. Kamaraj is said to have directly dealt with the owners of other lands, leading to a dispute between the two.

Minister denies link

Subsequently, Mr. Loganathan sent a legal notice to the former Minister in early 2016 in this connection. The Minister, however, had maintained that he had no connection with Mr. Kamaraj and did not know any such person.

Subsequently, Mr. Kamaraj is alleged to have threatened Mr. Loganathan and his wife, demanding money. Mr. Loganathan preferred online complaints with the K.K. Nagar police station.

However, the police did not act upon the complaints prompting him to file a petition in the judicial magistrate court seeking action against the former Minister, Mr. Kamaraj and two other persons – Thottam Bhaskar and Arun Vijaykumar.

Based on the petition, the court, on May 23, directed the K.K. Nagar police to register a case against the former Minister and the other three persons, investigate the complaint and file a report in a month.