Chennai: The flying squad and cops arrested as many as 28 persons in poll-bound RK Nagar constituency, mostly on suspicion of bribing voters with cash. Among the 28 are also three persons who had assaulted a DMK cadre in a poll-related clash.
The arrests arise from overnight vigilance mounted in RK Nagar between 11 pm on Tuesday and 3 am on Wednesday. All the arrested suspects were allegedly from the camp of Sasikala faction candidate TTV Dhinakaran.
Based on tip-offs, the flying squad scouted Nethaji Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, and Ajees Nagar where the flying squad raided a house and seized about Rs 9.9 lakhs, suspected to be meant for bribing voters. Eleven persons who were holed up in a house belonging to one Srinivasan were secured.
Another patrol operation launched in Kasimedu led to five people loitering under suspicious circumstances being held. They were taken in for questioning after flying squad officials managed to seize Rs 1.29 lakhs from them. Two DMK youth wing cadres, identified as Parthasarathy and Sheikh Mohamed who attempted to scuttle the bribing in Nethaji Nagar, were given a sound thrashing during the small hours of Wednesday. One more person, Abbas, who is a support of O. Panneerselvam faction candidate E. Madhusudhanan, was also injured in the attack after attempting to intervene. The injured were admitted to the Government Stanley Hospital.
The DMK working president M.K Stalin visited the injured in the hospital. The City Police registered a case in this connection and arrested the trio of Ajith, Murugan, and Darshan. The arrest follows a gherao by the DMK cadres at the RK Nagar Police station.
Late on Wednesday night, a Kancheepuram-based DMK functionary was flagged by the flying squad at Korukkupet junction when they found Rs 50,000 cash on him. He was taken in for questioning.
