Madurai court grants bail to MK Alagiri in land grabbing case

Madurai: A Madurai court on Tuesday granted bail to former union minister and expelled DMK leader MK Alagiri in a land grabbing case. The Madras High Court had already granted him anticipatory bail in the case.

The Crime Branch and Anti Land Grabbing Special cell had filed a case against Alagiri, son of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, alleging he had created false documents for cheating and grabbed 44 cents of land belonging to Vinayagar temple for Dhya Engineering college at nearby Sivarakottai, run by a trust headed by him.

Alagiri submitted the FIR had been filed with malafide intention and it was abuse of power. It was not a temple land, as claimed in the FIR, and it was legally untenable.

The complaint about the alleged land-grabbing had been lodged by the Assistant Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Board, Karunanidhi.

On August 28, Justice K Kalyanasundaram had granted bail to Alagiri till September 3 in the case and posted it for hearing on that date.

Alagiri, founder-president of MK Alagiri Educational Trust, had then submitted that the Trust, set up to provide education to poor students, had constructed Daya Engineering

College and had purchased several tracts of land.

He said the land in question was located outside the college and purchased from one Sampath through proper means by payment of cheque and sale deed. It originally belonged to another man who had given it to a woman in exchange for the land he had given to her.

Sampath had purchased it from the woman and the Trust had bought it from him.

While this was the fact, the HR&CE Department had 'suddenly' put up a fence on land bought by the Trust, he said and pointed out that two civil suits regarding the case are pending in civil courts.

Alagiri said he had to fight for three years to get affiliation for his college, for which state authorities had placed several hurdles. The charges levelled against him in the complaint were made with malafide intention and averments were without material facts, he said, and pleaded innocence.

(With additional information from PTI)