New Delhi: With several of its senior leaders
in jail on alleged land grabbing charges, DMK on Tuesday accused
the Tamil Nadu government of violating the directions of the
Supreme Court while arresting them and sought President
Pratibha Patil`s intervention in the issue.
A delegation of DMK ministers and MPs led by its
Parliamentary Party leader TR Baalu met Patil at the
Rashtrapati Bhawan here and alleged that their arrested
leaders were being subjected to "human rights violations".
The MPs, including Dayanidhi Maran and ministers of state
SS Palanimanickam and Gandhi Selvan, said in a memorandum
that the AIADMK government has constituted a special force to
look into land grabbing during the DMK regime in a bid to
"tarnish the public image" of the party.
Several former ministers, including Veerapandi S
Arumugam, KN Nehru and K Ponmudi, and many DMK leaders were
arrested in the continuing crackdown by the Jayalalithaa
government on the land grabbing issue.
"The fundamental rights of the citizens are being
violated and the arrested people are subjected to human rights
violations. The observations made by Supreme Court on how to
deal with an arrested person are not being followed at all,"
Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva told reporters after the meeting.
He alleged that the AIADMK government was "silent" on
complaints of land grabbing against its ministers, MLAs and
leaders.
"The DMK leaders are being arrested in midnight and are
taken away to prisons far away from their homes so as to
prevent their relatives to meet. An undeclared Emergency
situation is prevailing in the state," he said.
The DMK leaders said the President gave a patient hearing
to them.
PTI
