Election from Vellore Lok Sabha constituency to be held on August 5 has assumed major significance in the backdrop of political developments that took place in Tamil Nadu over the last 24 hours.
The general belief was that DMK candidate DM Kathir Anand (son of DMK treasurer Durai Murugan) would romp home without much difficulty, Not any more. The election was rescinded in the month of April following seizure of large cache of cash from the residence and business establishments of Kathir Anand hours before the polling was to begin.
Sunday’s arrest of Karthik (39), son of a senior DMK functionary, from a hideout in Madurai in connection with a triple murder that took place in Tirunelveli has come as a major embarrassment to the principal opposition party.
Karthik, who is also known as Karthikeyan, son of DMK leader Seeniammal, was picked up by the police team probing the murder of another DMK leader 65-year-old Uma Maheswari (former mayor of Tirunelveli), her husband Murugasankaran (74) and their housemaid Mariammal last Tuesday.
The bodies were seen early Wednesday morning at the residence of Uma Maheswari and the initial assessment was that the murders were for gain.
But the visuals collected from the CCTV cameras installed in the locality threw out the pictures of Karthik moving around the house f the victims in the fateful day.
Seeniammal, mother of Karthik, was also a DMK leader and an adversary of the slain DMK leader Uma Maheswari. The police got wind of the financial dealings between the two women leaders of the party and hence they picked up Karthik.
Stalin who launched his campaign from Vellore on Sunday had lambasted the AIADMK Government for breakdown in law and order in the State.
“Not a single day passes without me reading news of murder, rape and burglary,” Stalin had told the voters on Sunday.
Interestingly , the DMK leader’s diatribe had come at a time when the police picked up Karthik for interrogation. His mother Seenimmal too was grilled by the police team for more than two hours in connection with the murders.