Kanimozhi, Stalin court arrest in DMK protest

Top DMK leaders, including party chief M Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, besides thousands of party workers today courted arrest across Tamil Nadu as part of a 'fill-the-jail' protest against AIADMK government which has "foisted cases" against its cadres.

Former Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran and TR Baalu, MPS, also courted arrest during the protest which Stalin claimed was an overwhelming success.

Kanimozhi, accused in the 2G case, lashed out at the "vindictive politics," of the AIADMK government and alleged that her party leaders were being arrested without any proof.

The Rajya Sabha MP had been earlier permitted by the Delhi special court to participate in the protest.

Karunanidhi had said over 50,000 DMK cadres would take part in the protest.

An emergency executive meeting of the DMK had recently decided to hold the protest condemning the arrest of senior leaders, many of them former Ministers, and "foisting" cases on them.

Several leaders, including Veerapandi S Arumugam, now detained under the stringent Goondas Act, KN Nehru, K Ponmudy, KPP Samy, I Periasamy and J Anbazhagan have been arrested on charges of land grab and murder after the AIADMK came to power last year.

Karunanidhi told reporters that his party workers would not be cowed down by the government's "intimidating tactics."

"To reduce the participation (in the protest), they adopted tactics such as warning us with 15-day remand upon arrest or lodging in jails in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. But none was cowed down, none is bothered," he said.

He claimed that the protest was a big success.

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