DMK man takes aide away from police custody, held

Coimbatore: A DMK functionary and his personal assistant (PA) were arrested on Saturday night for spreading defamatory messages against municipal administration minister S P Velumani and AIADMK MLA Ettimadai Shanmugam. The DMK man had earlier prevented police from taking his PA into their custody.
A police source identified the arrested as DMK south district incharge S Thendral Selvaraj, 59, of Pollachi and his PA Keerthi Anand.
According to the source, Selvaraj had instigated the villagers of Singaiyanpudur to stage a road roko on May 26, after a 45-year-old local resident sustained injuries after a stone fell on his right knee from a tipper truck while he was heading to Kinathukadavu on his motorcycle.
On May 27, social media was fled with messages that minister Velumani and Kinathukadavu MLA Shanmugam were engaged in smuggling boulders, sand and liquor to Kerala through Veerappagoundanur check post.
The AIADMK MLA subsequently lodged a complaint with the Kinathukadavu police, who registered a case against Selvaraj and his PA.
Meanwhile, Kinathukadavu police inspector Murali and team secured Keerthi Anand at Valparai on Saturday evening. When Selvaraj came to know about this, he, along with around 57 party workers, waylaid the police vehicle near the forest department’s check post at Aliyar and took away his PA by force after threatening the police officials of dire consequences. They also damaged the police vehicle.
Following this, Murali lodged a complaint with the Aliyar police against Selvaraj, his PA and other party workers.
The Aliyar police arrested Selvaraj and his PA around 11.30pm on Saturday night.
The two were remanded in judicial custody on Sunday. The Aliyar police have also registered cases 57 DMK cadres, who are still at large.
DMK MLA N Karthik condemned the arrest of party functionaries. “Police cannot threaten the DMK by foisting false cases on the party workers. We will face the cases legally,” he said. tnn