Acting on a court’s directive, the Tiruchi city police has registered a case against former AIADMK Minister Natham Viswanathan and four others on a petition filed by a city-based realtor who has alleged that he was threatened by a person close to the former Minister.
Mr. Viswanathan is a senior leader of the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) headed by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
Besides Mr. Viswanathan, the case was booked against Kamaraj, Arun Vijaykumar and two others on Saturday by the K.K. Nagar police under IPC sections including 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) and 448 (house trespass).
Last week, the Judicial Magistrate –II K.K. Muralitharakannan had directed the K.K. Nagar police to file a case against the former Minister and three others, including V. Kamaraj on a petition filed by the realtor S. Loganathan (53) of Tiruchi. The alleged incident is said to have taken place when Mr. Viswanathan, was the Electricity Minister during 2011-16.
As per the complaint of the realtor, Mr. Kamaraj of Tirunelveli district had approached him in June 2015 claiming to be close to Mr. Viswanathan and sought 200 acres for the purpose of starting a solar power project, including 50 acres, belonging to Mr. Loganathan in Illupur taluk in Pudukottai district.
Mr. Kamaraj is said to have paid ₹20 lakh as advance to Mr. Loganathan, who arranged the remaining 150 acres of land which was in the names of other owners and incurred an expenditure of ₹50 lakh for arranging the remaining acres of land.
The documents for the total extent of 201 acres of land were given to Mr. Kamaraj by Mr. Loganathan subsequently. However, upon obtaining the documents, Mr. Kamaraj is said to have directly entered into sale arrangements with other owners without the permission of the realtor leading to a dispute between the two.
Foul language
The realtor claimed that Mr. Kamaraj tried to coerce him to accept to their terms under threat. He further alleged that Mr. Kamaraj had come to his house and used vulgar words and threatened his family members at the instigation of the former Minister.
Although complaints against the former Minister and others were made to the police no action was taken prompting him to file a petition in the Judicial Magistrate court, Mr. Loganathan stated in the petition.
Based on the petition, the court directed the K.K. Nagar police on May 23 to file a case against the former Minister and others; investigate and file a report in a month.
