TN: Tiruchy tops with 137 land grab petitions

TIRUCHY: The Rock City tops the State in the number of petitions received in land grabbing cases as well as the amount of property recovered, according to the Police Department here. Tiruchy has so far received 137 petitions related to land grabbing alone, of which seven cases have been registered and property worth `24 crore recovered. “We are receiving petitions on all working days. Four SI, one from each range, are scrutinising the petitions and classifying them,” said Commissioner of Police E Masanamuthu.Around noon, police officials in the rank of assistant commissioners or inspectors are asked to be present at the CoP’s office and conduct inquiries on the petitions received.“Till now, we have arrested seven persons, of which five belong to the DMK. We have recovered property in four cases. The value of the property is estimated at `24 crore,” he said. The police had registered seven cases out of the 125 petitions. Parties involved in 21 cases had agreed for a compromise after police intervention, Masanamuthu said. “We found that the police could not intervene in 13 cases as they are purely civil in nature. Just 68 petitions were pending, while five have been transferred to the rural police,” he said.“The confidence of the public in the police department has increased. Hence, the number of petitions are going up everyday,” the CoP said. “I myself spend over five hours daily to hear the grievances of the petitioners. This has drawn good response from the public.” He said the public could approach him anytime with complaints and promised that the details would be kept confidential.Cases were being studied carefully and police officials were ensuring that only those cases related to criminal offences including trespassing, illegal custody of property and death threats were being taken up for probe.So far, five DMK partymen, including district deputy secretary Kudamurutti T Sekar, have been arrested. Other partymen who have been taken into custody are R Arivudainambi, Corporation zonal chairman of the DMK, Madhivanan, DMK branch secretary of Malaikottai, Kajamalai S Vijay, DMK branch secretary of Milaguparai, and KKM Murthy, a DMK functionary.