No respite for former DMK ministers in TN

CHENNAI: Action against ministers in the former DMK government continued today, with the latest probe featuring vigilance and anti-corruption officials raiding properties of DMK leader and former minister MRK Panneerselvam in different parts of the state.

Panneerselvam had handled the backward communities and health portfolios in the Muthuvel Karunanidhi government which was voted out earlier this year. The former minister is one of the senior leaders of the DMK in Cuddalore district, and had lost in the assembly poll in April.

Pannerselvam is the latest among a number of senior leaders and former ministers of the DMK who are facing investigations on different counts, including land grabbing allegations.

Last month the vigilance department had arrested former higher education minister K Ponmudi in Chennai in connection with a land grabbing case. Prior to that, another former minister KN Nehru was arrested in Tiruchirpalli on a similar charge. Land usurping charges also earned arrests for two other former DMK ministers, Veerapandi S Arumugam and NKKP Raja.

Besides the former ministers, other senior DMK leaders including J Anbazhagan, OC Viswanathan and Anbil Periasamy are also facing charges of land grabbing.

Another former DMK minister KPP Samy was arrested last month in a case related to the abduction and murder of a fisherman in 2006. Samy has been remanded in judicial custody.

Chief minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram had stated at the end of August that the government had restored land valued at over Rs 415 crore to their owners, and that nearly 500 cases had been booked for land grabbing, in different parts of the state.