Coimbatore : About 300 DMK workers were arrested today when they attempted to stage picketing in front of the office of Superintendent of Police, to lodge their protest against what they termed as foisting false case against the party functionaries over the illegal gutka manufacturing unit.

The original plan of the DMK workers, led by former Minister,Pongalur N Palanisamy, was to lay siege of the SP’s office, for ‘falsely’ implicating former panchayat president Dalapathi Murugesan for helping unit owner Amit Jain to run his business in the building which neither had licence nor pollution board certificate.

The agitators moving towards SP’s office were stopped and over 250 members squatted on the road near the office.
Palanisamy said Murugesan and others who were demanding expedition of the case, were falsely implicated on charges of having helped Jain when he was Kannampalayam panchayat president.

Meanwhile, police detained scores of DMK workers at various places in and around the city, who were coming to the venue.

The raid on the godown on April 27 had resulted in recovery of 648 kg of VIP brand gutka and pan masala. The illegal manufacturing had been on since 2011.

Murugesan and six party workers were arrested yesterday and lodged in the Central Jail reportedly for preventing police from carrying out their duty during the raids, Superintendent of Police P Murthy said yesterday.

Police were in search of DMK leader N Karthik,MLA, and two others in connection with the incident, Murthy also said a team had gone to Delhi in search of Jain.