The roads of Villupuram on Saturday were drowned in a sea of political party workers both from the DMK and AIADMK. However, members of the two parties had starkly contrasting reasons to take to streets: one evoking anger and resentment and the other, jubilation and celebration.
While the DMK workers were expressing their anger against the arrest of former minister K Ponmudi, the AIADMK workers were welcoming the new party district secretary, R Lakshmanan.
Ponmudi was on Saturday arrested by the police after the High Court refused bail to him on Friday in a case relating to excessive quarrying of sand in Vanur block of Villupuram district.
Following a complaint from the tahsildar of Vanur Kumarabalan that Ponmudi, during his term as minister for mines and minerals, had granted mining licence to his son and his relatives and that they had excavated sand excessively at the quarry in Poonthurai in Vanur Block causing a loss of `28.32 crore to the exchequer, cases were booked against Ponmudi, his son Gowthama Sigamani, relatives Raja Mahendran, Sathananthan, Jaichandran and a few others. While Jaichandran, Kotha Kumar and Ponmudi’s kin Gopinath were arrested earlier, the ex-minister and his son approached the HC seeking advance bail. But, the court refused bail to them on Friday.
On Saturday morning, Ponmudi, clad in black, arrived at Gingee in a car without the party’s flag and started distributing pamphlets as part of the DMK’s statewide protest, when DSP Paneer Selvam approached him. But some DMK men whisked him away to the DMK town office. Addressing mediapersons at the party office, Ponmudi said, “After the DMK’s Mupperum Vizha in Villupuram, the case was booked against me.”
In the meantime, DIG Shanmugavel arrived at the scene and informed Ponmudi about the arrest. Ponmudi went to his house at East Shanmugapuram from where he was arrested. Ponmudi was taken to SP’s office for inquiry and then to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Kayalvizhi.
At this juncture, interestingly, the paths of the two convoys - one following the new district secretary and the other trailing the arrested DMK strongman - crossed at one point. Of course, the large number of vehicles in both convoys choked the roads and caused a traffic jam in the town. After his appointment as the new district secretary, Lakshmanan was visiting Villupuram for the first time and the AIADMK cadre had organised a grand welcome. Apart from bursing crackers, they presented him shawls. He had to do the ceremonial garlanding of statues.
In the meantime, cops produced the former minister before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, who remanded him to custody till October 19. Police said that search was on to arrest Ponmudi’s son and other accused in the case.
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