Alagiri moves court against assault case

“The complaint has been made with mala fide intention and ulterior motive…”

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers M.K. Alagiri (60), Deputy Mayor of Madurai P.M. Mannan (46) and two other Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam functionaries, V. Regupathy (48) and M. Thirugnanam (48), have filed a petition in the Madras High Court Bench here to quash an assault case registered against them on April 1 following a complaint by a Tahsildar.

The Keezhavalavu police here had registered the case under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from performing his duty) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code on charges of hurting the Tahsildar, who had ordered videographing of the Minister's visit to a temple.

In their petition, the Minister and others claimed that the Tahsildar had lodged a false complaint at the instigation of Collector U. Sagayam, who was inimical against the petitioners pursuant to the filing of a public interest litigation petition against him in the Principal Seat of the Madras High Court in Chennai.

Stating that the Tahsildar had denied any assault on him, the petitioners said: “The complaint has been made with a

mala fide intention and ulterior motive… The continuation of the investigation based on this complaint is unwarranted and it is an abuse of process of law… In the interest of justice, it is very much necessary that this court may be pleased to quash the complaint.”