Former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLA and party's district secretary V. Karuppasamy Pandian and his elder brother V. Sankarasubbu were arrested on Saturday in connection with a land grabbing case.
Police are on the look out for Sankarasubbu's son and district panchayat councillor Paramasiva Ayyappan, his daughter Sundari and three others.
The police force led by Additional Superintendent of Police Chockalingam that was mobilised at Mr. Pandian's native place of Thiruththu on the outskirts of Palayamkottai entered his house around 5.30 a.m. and informed him that he had been arrested under a land grabbing case filed on the complaint preferred by Kombaiah Pandian, a physically challenged person from Naduvaikurichi. After arresting Sankarasubbu, the police took the brothers to Palayamkottai Taluk police station and then to the house of Judicial Magistrate Paulpandian, who remanded them to judicial custody till September 23. While Mr. Karuppasamy Pandian was taken to Madurai Central Prison, his brother was lodged at Palayamkottai Central Prison.
The case is that Mr. Kombaiah purchased a piece of land, measuring about 5.75 acres, near his village in 1994, which was challenged by Tirunelveli Cooperative Society in a court, which ultimately gave the verdict in his favour in 1999. Since the society did not challenge the judgment, he constructed a house on it.
In 2008, Shanmuga Velayutham of Srivaikuntam sold Mr. Kombaiah's land to his relative Kallaththiyaan, who, in turn, gave 2.75 acres of land to his daughter Lakshmi and the remaining 3 acres to Sankarasubbu's daughter Sundari allegedly by creating fake documents.
“When Mr. Kombaiah Pandian met Mr. Karuppasamy Pandian with the aim of getting back his land, he was abused and threatened though the former MLA had known that the land had been grabbed through creation of fake documents. He got a similar treatment when he met Sankarasubbu. Hence the physically challenged Kombaiah Pandian, who could not do anything during the previous regime, filed a complaint with the police and subsequently the accused have been arrested,” said Mr. Chockalingam.
DMK cadres, who gathered in front of the Palayamkottai taluk police station, raised slogans against the police and State government.
