Land mafia behind attack on wife: AIADMK MLA

CHENNAI: AIADMK MLA Pazha Karuppaiah alleged that a land mafia was behind the attack on his 60-year-old wife at their residence in Royapettah on Tuesday.The party’s propaganda joint secretary, who was elected from the Harbour seat in the recent Assembly polls, claimed that he had received a threat call last week soon after he submitted a petition to the police commissioner, collector and the corporation commissioner, demanding the arrest of land sharks, who had encroached upon a corporation school in Royapettah. Karuppaiah said the Corporation Urdu Girls Middle School on Angappa Naicken Street was built on land donated aby the Muslim community. For the last five years, however, the playground had been taken over by a “land mafia” operating in the area.  “The corporation filed a case in the Madras High Court against the encroachment,” he said. “But in the face of non-objection by government lawyers, the court issued a stay on any further action against the encroachers,” he claimed. The stay was issued without the knowledge of the corporation. Further, the kingpin of the land mafia had built a house, encroaching upon the entire stretch of Moore First Street, he alleged.Claiming that he won a considerable number of Muslim votes during the elections, the party’s former literary wing president said he had taken up the corporation school’s cause and submitted a plea to the authorities soon after the AIADMK came to power. His twin demands: the stay must be vacated and the encroachers arrested. “The next day, I received a phone call, asking me to keep my nose out of the issue,” the MLA said. “I was also offered huge amounts of money.”His refusal to be cowed down by the threats prompted Tuesday’s attack on his wife, he claimed. On Tuesday morning, the AIADMK leader was at the mortuary of the government general hospital, after residents of Nainiappa Naicken Street complained about the bad odour emanating from the morgue. Express had extensively reported the appalling conditions prevailing at the morgue and the MLA found that conditions had not changed even after two years. “Out of the six AC units, only two are working,” he said. He was grilling the hospital authorities, when he received a call from his wife on the attack. Asserting that he would not give up his fight against the land mafia, Karuppaiah said the government must appoint honest officers as government pleaders. “Only then, government lands can be protected.”