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Chennai Police bring back ex-AIADMK minister arrested from Bengaluru
The Chennai police on Sunday arrested former AIADMK IT minister M Manikandan from Bengaluru on a slew of charges filed by a Malaysian-Tamil woman, including rape and criminal intimidation, HT has learnt
The Chennai police on Sunday arrested former AIADMK IT minister M Manikandan from Bengaluru on a slew of charges filed by a Malaysian-Tamil woman, including rape and criminal intimidation, HT has learnt.
“He was taken to the Anekal police station in Bengaluru first and now we are on-route to Chennai to conduct further investigations,” said an investigating officer who did not wish to be identified. Two special teams were formed to nab him after he had evaded arrest.
The politician’s anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Madras high court on June 16 to prevent the accused from tampering with evidence given his past powerful position and under circumstances where the charges are grave. The police had booked Manikandan under sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 376 (rape), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) & 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code read with section 67A of the Information Technology Act.
According to the submissions made in court, the complainant, a Malaysian citizen working in the Malaysian Tourism Development Organisation, was introduced to Manikandan by one Bharani, a second accused in the case, in May 2017. Manikandan was the Information Technology minister at that time.
The two were in a relationship for a few years having stayed and travelled together. The complainant says Manikandan promised to marry her after divorcing his wife. The complainant charged the politician with rape, forcing her to abort three pregnancies, hitting her and issuing death threats to her.
Manikandan’s counsel told the court that there was not ‘an iota of truth’ to the complaints and that she was 27-years old at that time and consented to sexual intercourse. The counsel said that her motive was to extort money from him, adding that the complaint comes after a change in government.
“On a prima facie consideration, we cannot rule out the perpetration of fraud by the petitioner (the accused) by falsely promising the defacto complainant that he will marry her in order to quench his lust for sex,” the court said in its orders passed last Wednesday.
