Civic chief held for land grab

TIRUPUR: The district crime branch (DCB) police here on Friday arrested the municipal chairman of 15, Velampalayam and DMK town secretary, S P Mani, on the charges of usurping 3.10 acres of land.Police sources said K Subramanian (69), hailing from Karuvalur village near Avinashi, had settled in Bangalore four decades ago as he was employed with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. He, along with elder brothers Ganesan and Samiappan, owned 3.10 acres of land in their native village. After Ganesan’s death a few years ago, Samiappan has been maintaining the land and used it to grow rain-fed crops on it. In a complaint to the Tirupur DCB recently, Subramanian said, “In 2006, Velampalayam municipal chairman S P Mani and his aide, Selvaraj, evinced interest in buying the land and offered `3 lakh for the plot as a whole. But we demanded `30 lakh and refused to sell the land for the low rate they offered. Subsequently, they threatened us.”“Mani and Selvaraj approached the four heirs of our sisters, Manikkammal and Thayammal, who passed away a few years ago. They forged the documents and registered the land in the names of Mani and Selvaraj for `4.25 lakh.” A case was registered with the DCB and Mani was arrested on Friday.