TN: Alagiri to file case against collector, SP

Madurai: Union Minister M K Alagiri on Tuesday said "he had lost faith" in the Election Commission and would soon file a case in the High Court against Madurai District Collector U Sagayam and SP Asra Garg for "forcing" election officials to give complaints against him.

Former Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Suhumaran was yesterday ordered to be suspended by the EC after he accused Sahayam, who is the District Election Officer, of harassing him to file cases against Alagiri and his men.

The EC had also directed Tamil Nadu government to initiate disciplinary action against Suhumaran who was only three days ago ordered to be moved out of politically-sensitive Madurai district of which he was the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO).

According to the EC, even before it took notice of the complaint, Suhumaran had sent copies of his communication to select TV channels and also spoke to the media, which was against the conduct rule of the government employees.

The police had filed a case against Alagiri following a complaint that the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers was allegedly present when M Kalimuthu, who is the Assistant Returning Officer for Melur Assembly segment, and a videographer, part of a flying squad, were allegedly assaulted by DMK activists when they filmed Alagiri's visit to a temple in Melur taluk on Friday.

However, Kalimuthu did a U-turn on Monday and informed the EC that he was never roughed up and he had given the complaint as dictated by the police.

Alagiri and three of his aides were booked under various sections of the IPC including 143 (Unlawful Assembly) and 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from doing his duty).

Commenting on the campaign of AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, Alagiri, when asked why her speeches were centred around him, said "she has so much of affection for me".

On Jayalalithaa's promise to make Madurai a spiritual and pilgrim city, he said "already Subramanian Swamy promised to make Madurai Singapore, he did not come back. Jayalalithaa also will go away."