Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nov 6 (PTI) The Madurai City Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Friday arrested former deputy Mayor and AIADMK functionary P M Mannan on charges of attempting to bribe a ruling TVK MLA to vote against the state government in the event of a possible no-confidence motion.
Mannan was taken into custody in the morning by the Madurai City Central Crime Branch (CCB) for allegedly offering a sum ranging between Rs 15 crore and Rs 30 crore to Madurai Central TVK MLA Madhar Badruddin, also known as Mustafa. The illicit offer was reportedly routed through the legislator's assistant, Kani.
According to police sources, Mannan was subjected to intense interrogation for over four hours by a special team led by deputy commissioner of police, M P Divya.
However, when he was produced before the Madurai district court, judge Joseph Joy declined to remand Mannan to judicial custody and released him on a personal bond of Rs 25,000.
The judge questioned the police as to why the AIADMK leader was arrested on Friday when he had already been issued a summons to appear for questioning on November 7.
Speaking to reporters outside the court following his release, Mannan said he respected the court's decision and would fully cooperate with the probe. He confirmed he would appear before the CCB for questioning at 10 am on Saturday.
Meanwhile, investigators also questioned Kani, the MLA's assistant who filed the official complaint. The CCB is scrutinising alleged telephonic conversations and audio evidence to uncover the broader network behind the horse-trading attempt.
Police are working to identify other key individuals involved in the alleged conspiracy to topple the TVK government.
The ruling TVK has been making allegations of attempts to poach its MLAs in a bid to topple the C Joseph Vijay-led maiden government of the party.
The TVK government had earlier won a trust vote in May, days after coming to power.
Taking to social media platform X, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami strongly condemned the arrest, terming it a "false case" fabricated by the TVK government's police department.
He demanded the immediate release of Mannan and urged the government to put an end to such "cheap political tricks".
Palaniswami alleged that the ruling party was staging a fabricated story using the Madurai Central MLA because it was unable to pacify its own disgruntled legislators, who are reportedly caught between multiple "power centres" and unable to approach the Chief Minister.
Warning the "cinema reels government" against employing the "old Tamil cinema formula" of pinning the blame on the victim, Palaniswami stated that their true colours would soon be exposed.
He further accused the TVK of "engaging in horse-trading" even before coming to power, alleging that the party had kidnapped an allied AMMK MLA to secure signatures.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)