The Minister, who has been admitted to a private hospital after complaints of chest pain a couple of days ago, has been removed from the post owing to “ill health”, and Transport Minister K N Nehru has been given his portfolio for the time being.

Arumugam, a party strongman in the southern district of Salem, was alleged to have taken over a 20,000 sq foot land by force in the heart of the city, evicting 31 families who had been residing in the plot for many years. The value of the land is calculated to be at least Rs 25 crore.

According to advocate Haribabu, an activist and a member of Centre for Protection of Civil Libertie, the Minister’s henchmen tried to intimidate and dissuade him from intervening in the matter. An old campus case pending against him for over eight years was also brought back to pressurise him, he added, while releasing CDs containing the taped conversations to the media here on Monday.

In the sting operation that spanned the last two months, Salem additional sub-judge Amutha and additional public prosecutor A Moorthy are shown in the tape asking Haribabu to reach a compromise with the Minister, raising serious questions about the functioning of lower-level judiciary in the state.

“Though this is a false case registered against me, the magistrate calling an accused to her chamber itself is against law. She was doing kattapanchayat (kangaroo court) on behalf of the Minister,” alleged Haribabu. In fact, in the tape, the public prosecutor is heard assuring Haribabu that they have got the best judge for such mediation.

Another tape showed a top cop advising the affected parties to insist on a court inquiry.The Madras High Court, earlier this year, had directed the district authorities to rehabilitate the evictees in the same plot at the earliest, though the direction was not heeded, he added.

Though the Minister was not directly shown on the tape, it was beyond suspicion that the officials were acting on his behalf, he said.