TIRUPUR: Ex-Tamil Nadu highways minister M P Saminathan was on Monday arrested on charges of grabbing land worth Rs 15 crore from a real estate promoter nearly five years ago. Saminathan, also known as ‘Vellakoil’ Saminathan, is presently the DMK Tirupur district unit secretary.Based on a complaint filed by a realtor Gopinath, a resident of Vellakoil here, police at the anti-land grabbing cell of the Tirupur Crime Branch had registered a case against the DMK leader a couple of days ago.According to police, in early 2007, Gopinath had transferred ownership of 5.48 acre land at Vilankurichi in Coimbatore that was purchased from five joint owners by obtaining a Power of Attorney deed from them. Later, he according to a deal he granted Power of Attorney to industrialist-cum-real estate promoter Kanagaraj and gave him `3.2 crore. “Shortly after the deal, when Kanagaraj applied for Encumbrance Certificate for the property at the local Sub-Registrar’s Office, he found that the land was mired in a messy bank loan deal. He immediately asked Gopinath to cancel the Power of Attorney and return his advance money,” the police said.Initially, Gopinath dodged Kanagaraj, but later he had agreed to return `32 lakh and cancel the Power of Attorney deed. But Kanagaraj allegedly demanded `85 lakh citing loss of business in view of the failed real estate transaction. Subsequently, Kanagaraj allegedly approached the then highways minister Saminathan to intervene in the matter.Gopinath, claimed that the minister had summoned him to the party office in Mulanur on June 10, 2007. “Saminathan abused and threatened me to part with the money. When I resisted, he and others demanded that I should ask my brother Sundararaj to part with his 4.5 acre land in Avinashi. Later, they forcibly made my brother sign on papers giving up ownership of the land,” he said.
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