The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : DMK councillor moves sessions court for bail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 23, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

DMK councillor moves sessions court for bail

Special Correspondent

Says Government has falsely implicated him in stampede case

CHENNAI: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) councillor, K. Dhanasekaran (42), who was arrested on December 20 in connection with the stampede at M.G.R. Nagar, has moved a sessions court here for bail.

Claiming that the Government had falsely implicated him in the case to gain political mileage, Mr. Dhanasekaran said the idea was to "divert the attention of the general public from the inefficient and incompetent handling of the relief distribution work by Revenue and police officials."

He said the Collector and he Deputy Commissioner of Police concerned were transferred after the stampede. "This shows that the Government has admitted that the stampede was only due to administrative lapses. In order to divert the core issue of inefficiency and irresponsible attitude of its senior officials, the Government has implicated the petitioner in the case."

According to Mr. Dhanasekaran, the tragedy was a result of lack of proper planning for distributing the flood relief. Even a bare perusal of the First Information Report filed against him would illustrate the fact that no cognizable offence had been made out.

The petitioner said he was the DMK division secretary for K.K. Nagar and represented ward number 130. MGR Nagar did not come under his ward. It fell within the jurisdiction of ward 131, represented by an AIADMK member.

Apprehending arrest in connection with the stampede case, two DMK cadres, S. Senthilkumar and S. Ravi, have preferred anticipatory bail. The petitions, moved by advocates N.R. Elango and A. Saravanan, in the Principal Sessions court, submitted that the petitioners had no connection with the stampede and a case had been foisted on them "with ulterior political motives and malafide intentions."

While Mr. Senthilkumar is the DMK youth wing joint organiser, Mr. Ravi is divisional representative of the party in K.K. Nagar.

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