JOIN USRitheesh was picked from his house in Chennai early on Wednesday and taken to the Kancheepuram S P’s Office in pursuance of the land-grab complaint against him, police sources said over telephone.
In Vellore prision
The Lok Sabha member, representing the Ramanathapuram constituency, was later remanded to judicial custody and lodged into the Vellore Central prison, sources said.
One Samikannu of a village near Sunkuwar Chattiram in Kancheepuram district had complained that Ritheesh Kumar had grabbed his 1.47 acres of land with forged documents.
Ritheesh is the first DMK MP to be arrested on a land grab charge since the AIADMK, which came back to power in May 2011, had initiated action against land-grabbers during the previous DMK regime in the State.
Several others
Several former DMK Ministers from Tamil Nadu, including Veerapandi S Arumugam, had been also arrested on similar charges in the past.
However, Chief Minister J Jayalalitha had directed the constitution of “special cells” in each District Police Headquarters Office across the state to receive such land grab complaints from the people for prompt action.