[qikolax]

Tiruvarur in the Cauvery delta witnessed high drama on Saturday following the brief detention of DMK treasurer and former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin when he resisted the arrest of party district secretary Poondi Kalaivanan who was part of his convoy.

The sudden arrest of Mr Stalin triggered a wave of protests by DMK cadres across the state, except in Madurai, demanding his immediate release.

Meanwhile, former agriculture minister and Salem district DMK secretary Veerapandi S. Arumugam was arrested by Salem police in a fresh land grab case. Arumugam, who is on a condition bail after two days of custodial interrogation in two other land grab cases, was detained by the police when he appeared in the crime branch office on Saturday.

Arumugam was lodged in Coimbatore central prison after being produced before the judicial magistrate.

The latest case pertains to a complaint by Balamohan Raj, who alleged that over 20,000 sq ft of land on Salem-Namakkal highway was forcibly grabbed by Arumugam.

As the police continued to crackdown on land grabbers, south Chennai district DMK secretary and Chepauk-Triplicane legislator J. Anbazhagan was arrested by Tirupur police early Saturday. He was arrested based on a complaint by Srinivasan of Udumalpet who alleged that Mr Anbazhagan and some others threatened him to sell him his paper mill in Karumathampatty, near Tirupur. He, too, was lodged in Coimbatore prison.