REFUGEE

CHENNAI: Describing the February 14, 1998, serial blasts in Coimbatore as an event of ‘‘unimaginable terror and horror,’’ the Madras High Court
on Friday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to 17 persons and a 13-year term given to another culprit. ( Watch Video )

But overruling the trial court, the court acquitted 22 persons of all charges and ordered that they be set free immediately. The judges blamed the Tamil Nadu government’s failure to invoke special laws having more teeth and the failure of the police to ensure a ‘‘focussed and a methodical investigation’’ for a majority of the life convicts walking free. Though the serial blasts had a ‘‘paralysing effect’’ on civil society, the prosecution invoked only ‘‘ordinary penal law,’’ the judges observed, and said the incident was an ‘‘extraordinary occurrence.’

Seventy to 74 percent voting was recorded in the by-polls for two assembly seats in Tamil Nadu Saturday, officials said.

Election Commission officials said that polling was peaceful with 74 percent votes cast in Vandavasi and 70 percent in Tiruchendur.

The two seats witnessed a three-cornered contest between the DMK, the AIADMK and the DMDK.

As the commission decided to match the images of the voters captured on web cameras installed in the polling booths with those stored in its servers, the polling process took some extra time and ended only at 5 p.m.

The fate of 39 contestants will be decided Dec 23 when counting takes place.

There was some tension when AIADMK cadres asked DMK men from outside Vandavasi to go out of the town as per the Election Commission's direction.

The AIADMK had boycotted the last by-elections in August and party chief Jayalalithaa asked the Election Commission to declare the DMK candidates as winners without holding the polls.

Though charges of bribing the voters with cash, liquor, dhotis, saris and even mobile phone recharge coupons flew thick and fast, Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said it is difficult to verify the allegations.

Deputy consul general of Japan Takayuki Kitagawa has inauguraed a Japanese Language Institute and Japanese Culture and Management Training Centre hereSpeaking on the occasion here yesterday, he said with the increase in investment by Japan in India, especially in Tamil Nadu, more people were showing interest to learn the language.

While 1873 students registered for Japanese language proficiency test in Tamil Nadu last year, it stood at 2260 so far this year, he said.

When there were 328 Japanese companies in India in 2006, it rose to 1049 at present, he said.

The number of Japanese firms in Tamil Nadu as of now was 169 now from 35 three years back, he said.

The number of students learning Japanese language in India had doubled from 5,000 in 2007 to 10,000 students now.

Vellore: Four persons died and 10 were injured in a collision between a state transport bus and a container lorry near VaniyambadiWhile three bus passengers were among the victims, the other deceased was a lorry driver, whose vehicle rammed the damaged bus, police said.

The bus was proceeding from Salem to Namakkal yesterday when the mishap occurred.

The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday finalised 17 suppliers for sourcing four million 14-inch colour television for its free TV scheme at Rs.2,061 per set, totalling around Rs.8.24 billion.

The all party legislator committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi opened the price bids of the 17 bidders at the State Secretariat Tuesday to finalise the suppliers for the fifth phase of the free colour TV distribution.

After discussions with the two lowest bidders - Clear Vision Industries and B.G. Industries - a price of Rs.2,061 per piece was finalised and the four million sets will be supplied by the 17 companies who have agreed to the price.

However, B.G. Industries will be supplying the highest number of sets at 800,000 TVs followed by East India Technologies, Genus Electrotech and Dixon Technologies (400,000 units each).

Till date, the government has distributed over 9.1 million TV sets fre of cost to the poor people of the state.

The state government started distributing free colour TV sets in 2006 and gave away 30,000 sets in the first phase.

In the second and third phases, 2.5 million and 3.75 million sets respectively were distributed.

For the fourth phase, the government has already ordered around 4.16 million sets. The total TV sets for distribution under this phase will be around five million.

Accused in Dinakaran case acquitted

Seventeen people accused of setting fire to the office of Dinakaran newspaper in 2007 in which three employees died were acquitted by a court in Madurai last week.
The attack was sparked by a survey conducted by the newspaper owned by Sun TV network’s Kalanidhi Maran, the grand nephew of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The survey gave higher ratings to Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin that angered his other son Azhagiri in Madurai.
Azhagiri’s supporters attacked Dinakaran’s offices and unleashed violence in Madurai and adjacent districts. Two computer engineers and the building’s watchman were killed and many were injured.
Seventeen people went on trial but were acquitted by the district and sessions court.
The survey and the attack caused a rift in Karunanidhi’s family and Kalanidhi’s younger brother Dayanidhi was forced to resign as minister in the federal cabinet. His uncles launched cable networks to rival Sun TV and disowned them publicly. However the ‘first family’ patched up in 2008 and worked together to win the May 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Man killed, two hurt as temple fresco falls

A 76-year-old man died and two others were injured when a cement fresco fell at the Sangameswarar temple in Bhavani in Erode district last week.
Police said the victims were praying when the fresco shaped like a lotus fell on them.
Temple authorities admitted that the recently pasted fresco had not been sealed properly and have asked its construction firm to investigate.
In another incident, an eight-year-old girl was killed and 14 were injured when their van collided with another vehicle while going to Kerala’s Sabarimala temple in Dharmapuri, about 200km from Chennai.

Kidnapped coast guards freed after negotiations

Two members of the coast guards who were allegedly kidnapped by Sri Lankan fishermen off the Chennai coast were freed after two days of negotiations last week.
The incident occurred when a patrol of the coast guards seized seven Sri Lankan fishing boats trespassing into Indian waters last week. Two coast guards took control of each boat and the Indian patrol boat steered the convoy towards Chennai. However one of the boats with five fishermen and two guards broke free and escaped.
Meanwhile the seized boats with 35 Sri Lankan fishermen were sent to Vishakapatnam in eastern Andhra Pradesh for judicial action.

Bus hijacked, passengers looted in Ponneri

A six-member gang hijacked a Thanjavur-bound government bus and looted the passengers at Meensuruti near Ponneri last week.
Police said four masked men in an SUV intercepted the bus. Their two accomplices were already inside the bus. They forced the driver to stop the bus at a deserted spot and took away cell phones, wallets and jewels from the passengers. They also blocked the two doors of the bus and beat up a policeman who tried to confront them.
After 15 minutes, the gang escaped in the SUV and the passengers alerted the police.
Police have arrested a girl travelling in the bus who is suspected to be friendly with the gang.

Madurai, Dec 14 About 1,000 lawyers in Tamil Nadu face deregistration by the state bar council as they had obtained their law degree after completing post graduation through Open University without regular basic degree.

"About 1,000 lawyers may be deregistered and asked to surrender their enrolment certificate (EC)," an official of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu (BCT) said here recently.

The identification process of lawyers who got their PG degree from Open Universities was on and the BCT had already sent letters to some of them cancelling their enrolment.

The Madras High Court had last year declared as invalid the post-graduation degrees obtained without basic degrees (through regular university) and 12 years of school education.

Dismissing appeals, the Supreme Court had recently upheld the High Court judgement following which the BCT decided to deregister lawyers without the basic degree.

Chennai, Dec 13 In a swift response to AIADMK’s complaint, the Election Commssion Saturday ordered the transfer of Inspector General of Police, South Zone, S.S. Krishnamoorthy.
Tamil Nadu’s major opposition party has complained about police searching the hotel rooms of party leaders, including former chief minister O. Panneerselvam, in Tiruchendur where they were campaigning for the Dec 19 by-polls.

In a complaint faxed to the Chief Election Commissioner Saturday, K.A. Sengottaiyan, the AIADMK whip in the state assembly, said the rooms he and Panneerselvam were staying in at the Mini Sivamurugan Hotel at Tiruchendur were raided at about 1.45 a.m. by S.S. Krishnamoorthy and his subordinates.

Alleging that the search was conducted on the directions of union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M.K. Alagiri to “embarrass” him and other party leaders, Sengottaiyan accused Krishnamoorthy of “acting in a biased manner under the instructions of the ruling DMK party”.

The raid was conducted on the eve of AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa’s campaign in the constituency Saturday and Sunday.

This is the second time in a short period that Krishnamoorthy has been transferred by the election commission.

During the by-election to the Tirumangalam assembly constituency in January, 2008, he was transferred.

Chennai, Dec 13 Hosts Tamil Nadu were sitting pretty with an overall lead of 285 runs at stumps on the penultimate day of the Under-19 cricket tournament for the Cooch Behar Trophy Elite group match, here Sunday.
Leg-spinner Sharavan Krishnan took six for 76 as Rajasthan were all out for 155 in their first innings in reply to Tamil Nadu’s score of 227.

In their second knock, Tamil Nadu were 213 for six with R. Rohith scoring 92 (8 x 4) and leg-spinner Harminder Singh claiming three for 54.

Brief scores:

Tamil Nadu 227 and 213 for 6 (R Rohith 92, Harminder Singh 3 for 54) vs Rajasthan 155 all out (Azeem Akthar 53, RD Ashwin Kumar 2 for 20, Sharvan Kumar 6 for 76).

The Supreme Court Friday sought the stands of the Tamil Nadu government and advocate bodies of the state on a lawsuit for initiating criminal and disciplinary proceedings against a section of lawyers in the state for 'holding the legal system to ransom' and becoming law unto themselves.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan sought the stands of government and lawyers' bodies, issuing them notices on a lawsuit by Chennai citizen, Vishwanath Swami, who also demanded transfer of all the criminal cases against advocates, involved in violence inside the Madras High Court premises in February this year, outside the state.

The bench, which also included Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Ashok Ganguly, decided to hear Swami's lawsuit along with a bunch of other pleas related to lawyers' agitation and act of vandalism.

Appearing for Swami, former attorney general Soli J. Sorabjee also urged the court 'to exercise its extra-ordinary powers and lay down sufficient guideline for (decent) behaviour by lawyers inside an outside the court premises.'

Sorabjee urged the apex court to frame guidelines in accordance with the recommendations of Justice B.N. Srikrishna who probed into advocates' violent agitation on the apex court order itself and had found that 'a mob of unruly lawyers had indulged in stone throwing, rioting and vandalism.'

The former attorney general recalled that Justice Srikrishna, in his report, had also pointed out that various bar councils, formed to have disciplinary control over advocates, have not been acting as an effective regulatory bodies when it comes to enforcing professional conduct on their members.'

He recalled that Justice Srikrishna had also suggested changes in the Advocates Act, 1961 to ensure a better disciplinary mechanism as it 'affects not only disciplined lawyers but also the litigants, the administration of justice and finally the rule of law.'

Justice Srikrishna, in his report, had urged that pending suitable changes in the law by the government, the apex court should formulate appropriate guidelines to discipline the lawyers.

Swami, who was also a victim of the lawyers' unruly behaviour inside the high court premises on Feb 19 and ended up fracturing one of his arms in the ensuing cane-charge by the police, told the court that as per official information procured by him under the provisions of transparency law, a total of 345 criminal cases have been registered against lawyers all over Tamil Nadu.

Swami said the cases include 175 registered in Chennai alone with some of them dating back to 1991, but the police failed to prosecute them.

He said that even the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, which had been apprised by the police of various criminal cases registered by them against lawyers, have failed to take action against them.

Swami pointed out that though the Madras High Court later ordered suspension of four senior police officers for ordering cane-charging in the high court premises to quell the mob of rioting lawyers, the high court took no action against any of the erring lawyers, despite several judges of the high court falling victim to 'lawyers' hooliganism'.

In his lawsuit, Swami pointed out to the court that the high court has failed to implement even its own order of 2006, as per which lawyers have been barred from erecting political hoardings, cutouts of political leaders and putting up political advertisement in the court premises.

The lawyers continue to indulge in all sorts of political activites inside the court premises with immunity, said Swami in his atition.

The cyclonic storm 'WARD' over southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal moved northwards and lay centred at 0530 hours IST of today, 12th December 2009 near lat. 9.50 N and long. 84.50 E, about 350 km northeast of Batticaloa (Sri Lanka), 500 km southeast of Nagapattinam and 600 km southeast of Chennai. The system is likely to move in a northwesterly direction towards Tamil Nadu coast.

However, satellite derived steering wind in upper troposphere suggests the possibility of northerly/ northeasterly movement of the system. Considering all the above, the system is under watch.

Under its influence, rainfall at many places with isolated heavy to very heavy falls is likely to commence over coastal Tamilnadu and Puducherry from today, the 12th December 2009 afternoon. Subsequently, increase in rainfall activities with scattered heavy to very heavy falls and isolated extremely heavy falls is likely over south coastal Tamilnadu from tomorrow, the 13th December 2009 onwards.

Squally winds speed reaching 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph are likely to commence along and off Tamilnadu and Puducherry coasts from today, the 12th December 2009 afternoon and becoming gale force wind speed reaching 75-85 Kmph gusting to 95 Kmph. Sea condition will be high to very high along and off these coasts. Fishermen are advised not to venture into the sea along and off these coasts.

Chennai: Two Indian Coast Guard sailors on board a Sri Lankan fishing boat being towed to Chennai are missing from the last two days, officials said on Friday.

Officials said the boat might have strayed into Sri Lankan waters and there was delay in rescuing the sailors as contact could not be established with fishermen on board.
The Coast Guard is also in touch with Sri Lankan authorities to get the sailors released.

On Wednesday night, a Coast Guard patrol ship spotted Sri Lankan fishermen on seven boats fishing in Indian waters, intercepted them and deployed two sailors on each of the vessels before towing them towards Chennai.

After some time, the seventh boat with five fishermen and two sailors was found missing, amid suspicision that they might have been overpowered by the former.

Sri Lankan fishermen often stray into Indian waters to net prize catch like tuna and end up in Coast Guard and police custody.

Coast Guard officials said the other six boats are in their custody.

Chennai: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued a cyclone alert for Tamil Nadu. The met department has also warned that the state will also witness heavy rains in next 24 to 48 hours.

Officials said the heavy rainfall will occur due to a depression over south-east coast of Bay of Bengal.

The Authorities have sent out warnings to fishermen and citizens to not venture near the sea or along the coast.

CHENNAI: A Special Investigation Team of the Tamil Nadu police will question T Nazir, the suspected LeT activist and a key suspect in the 26/11
terror attack, on his alleged involvement in planting explosives at the Coimbatore press club in December 2002.

Highly-placed sources in SIT told The Times Of India that the Bangalore police had allotted time on Friday to interrogate Nazir. After the preliminary investigation, the SIT would approach the court and seek his remand in the Coimbatore case before applying for his police custody. "We have to interrogate him to see whether he still has lively contacts in Coimbatore and whether they have any terror plans in Tamil Nadu," a senior SIT official said.

According to the police, Nazir and four associates planted one kg gelatine at the press club building, allegedly to take revenge against the police "atrocities" against Soofia Madhani, wife of PDP leader Abdul Nassar Madhani.

The Coimbatore police managed to dig out the bomb in time and registered a case under the Tamil Nadu Explosive Substances Act against Nazir, M A Shabeer, Noushad, Shabeer and Sabir, all from Kerala. The case was then transferred to SIT. A SIT team arrested M A Shabeer and Noushad in the case. Nazir, Shabeer and Sabir had been absconding. The Bangalore police then arrested Nazir, said to have grown into a major LeT operative who allegedly played key roles in several terror attacks across the country.

A five-member team of SIT Coimbatore went to Bangalore after the police there arrested Nazir. "The team had been there for the last four days. However, the Bangalore police had 11 cases against Nazir and were busy interrogating him in relation with these cases. The Bangalore police told us to come back on Friday as they had allotted time for us on that date," the official added.

Nazir is said to have grown in stature which is bothering the Tamil Nadu police. "He is not just another Islamic hardliner. His networks and training background with the LeT that have been getting exposed now are scary. So we are keen to get him in our custody to know about his contacts, associates and plans in Tamil Nadu," another official added.

CHENNAI: All the 17 accused for burning three employees of the Tamil daily Dinakaran in the Madurai office in May 2007 have been set free by a

Tamil Nadu court as the key witnesses turned hostile.

The accused were acquitted by the principal district sessions court on Wednesday.

Except for one police official who was charged with negligence of duty, all others were supporters of M K Alagiri, union minister for chemicals and fertilisers and chief minister M. Karunanidhi's son.

The attack on the Dinakaran office allegedly by Alagiri's supporters happened after the daily published a survey that said Dayanidhi Maran - son of late Murasoli Maran and a nephew of Karunanidhi - ranked ahead of Alagiri, the DMK's strongman from Madurai, in popularity.

Vinoth, Gopi and Muthupandi died when the Dinakaran office was burnt. The incident was recorded on video by several news channels.

The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the attack.

Soon after the attack, the relationship between the Maran and Karunanidhi families soured and Dayanidhi Maran resigned from his union cabinet berth.

Subsequently, the chief minister's family members floated Kalaignar television channels to rival Sun Network owned by Kalanidhi Maran, who owns Dinakaran. The DMK party headquarters also asked Sun Network to vacate its premises.

The state government also floated Arasu Cable Corporation to run cable TV network committing sizeable funds to rival the Maran owned multi system operator (MSO) Sun Cable Vision.

With economic interests getting affected the two families decided to patch up in 2008 and Dayanidhi Maran was given a ticket to contest for the Lok Sabha seat from Chennai and was made a cabinet minister in charge of the textiles ministry.

The burning of the office and the death of three people brought to mind the 2000 incident when three women students of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University were charred to death when AIADMK cadres torched a bus near Dharmapuri in 2000.

As witnesses turned hostile, the Madras High Court scrapped the trial held at Krishnagiri court and transferred the case to Salem court.

In 2007 the Salem court awarded death sentences to three and life imprisonment for 25 accused. While the Madras High Court upheld the judgment, the Supreme Court in 2008 has stayed the death sentence.

Quite unexpectedly on a weekend, Tamil Nadu patriarch M Karunanidhi did something that is pretty unusual. He declared his intention to step aside. The timeline he has in mind would suggest the middle of next year if he is really allowed to move off the political stage for good. Not that that is going to be easy. He will undoubtedly come under intense pressure from his colleagues and the DMK cadre to carry on regardless of his own age and age-related disabilitiesIf he does, however, go into retirement from active power politics, even if it means becoming a mentor of sorts -- like a non-executive chairman in the corporate world -- it would be a rare political gesture; calling it a day having done what you could. A rare political action indeed, given the fact that no politician ever retires. They are either sidelined or fade out because they are too old, ill and a piece of history at best.

Not so Karunanidhi. The extent of his physical limits and illnesses, if any, may be a secret known only to those in the inner circle. His inability to move around -- he needs support to even walk around, or uses a wheel chair -- is there for all to see. His mental agility however, is something even his worst critic would admire, though one may argue that his responses now are far more measured and mellowed.

Certainly what is most admirable is the calculated succession process that he has put in place. It is a plan that has run its course fairly smoothly until now even though there is no guarantee that it would be so once he brings his innings to a close.

One may criticise him for making his family the only relevant power centre in the DMK. His son, MK Stalin, was gradually moved from the periphery to become deputy chief minister and manage all key portfolios his father held.

His other son, MK Azagiri, represents the party's interests at the Centre along with his grand nephew, Dayanidhi Maran and daughter Kanimozhi. A complete family portrait of a powerful dynasty, one may say cynically. That is undoubtedly true. But, given the fact that politics as a family business or, if you want to make a subtle distinction, practice (as in practice of law or medicine) has become a fact of life in all parties and across all regions, Karunanidhi alone cannot be faulted on this score.

The two principal political parties in Tamil Nadu, the DMK and the AIADMK, are undoubtedly cadre-based but are, at the same time, highly personality oriented. If it was Annadurai and Karunanidhi thereafter so far as the DMK is concerned, it was MGR followed by Jayalalithaa in the case of the AIADMK. Other minor parties such as the PMK, MDMK and so on are much more personality-driven than the two main Dravidian parties. For over 60 years, politics in Tamil Nadu has shaped on this basis. So, the succession process in the DMK is quite understandable.

Karunanidhi also deserves credit for striking a fine balance between regional aspirations and national interests unlike some regional parties, notably in Maharashtra, who are unable to make a fine blend of the two. That again is a process that saw subtle but significant changes over time.

If, for instance, the strident language the DMK used in the late sixties bordered on secessionist tendencies and if its anti-Hindi agitation was more violent than what you saw in Mumbai in the recent past, it dropped these tendencies over time and became a principal regional player in the national context to an extent all formulations, the Congress, the BJP and the United Democratic Front, had to do deal with parties in Tamil Nadu much more than as minor partners. As a result, national political parties have been compelled to play second fiddle in Tamil Nadu and that for close to fifty years.

That political balance is so intrinsic to Tamil Nadu politics that the difference between one political outfit and another in that state is largely on account of personality play and not because of serious ideological differences.

Now that the DMK patriarch has set a timeline to be in office, other political parties will surely be salivating at the prospect of improving their fortunes after he withdraws into the side wings. The Congress, in particular, will be hoping to regain the ground it lost a long time ago. Among the purely regional players there are many who would like to become another Karunanidhi. Even if they may have the fervour to do that, crafting a political script the way he did and for so long takes a lot more.

Chennai: A suspected LeT militant, now in Bangalore for questioning about his involvement in terror-related cases, is also wanted in connection with planting of explosives in Coimbatore, top police official saidOfficials of Tamil Nadu Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the case of planting explosives at Coimbatore Press Club in 2002, are camping in Bangalore to question T Nazir.

"Nazir, a wanted in this case, has been absconding since day one. SIT officials are camping in Bangalore (to question him)," the officer said.

A team of Kerala police officials too have reached there to question Nazir and his associate in connection with terror cases in Kerala.

The Tamil Nadu SIT and Intelligence wing have been in touch with their Kerala counterparts after incidents of recruitment of Muslim youth to terrorist organisations came to light when four Keralite youths were shot dead in an Army encounter near the LoC while they were attempting to sneak into PoK last year.

Some questioning "is due" to establish if Nazir's terror network has any links with Tamil Nadu, the officer said.

The SIT team would examine information provided by Nazir, who is wanted in a number of cases including the Bangalore serial blasts in July 2008, which left one dead and 20 others injured.

Nazir along with another suspected militant, Shafaz, was arrested by Bangladesh Rifles along the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya and subsequently handed over to BSF on Dec 2. They were brought to Bangalore on December 4.

Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, along with other prominent faces of Tamil cinema, presented the Best Dialogue Writer award to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for the movie 'Uliyin Osai' at the State government’s film awards ceremony for 2007 and 2008 in Chennai Tuesday.

The two icons of Tamil film industry were presented the Best Actor awards by the Chief Minister at the colourful and glittering function that took place at the Madras University Centenary Auditorium.

While Rajini bagged the honour for 'Sivaji', Kamal Haasan was presented with the Best Actor award for 2008 for his ten-role performance in 'Dasavatharam'.

Jyothika was presented the Best Actress award for her performance as a deaf and dumb in 'Mozhi'. Sneha bagged the award for her performance in 'Privom Santhippom' for the year 2008.

The award for the third best film for 2007 went to ‘Pallikoodam’ and Thankar Bachchan, who directed the film, received the Best Director award.

'Periyar', a biopic on Dravidian movement founder Periyar E V Ramasamy won the award for the best movie under special award category for 2007. Sathyaraj won the special jury award for his role in the film.

Padmapriya was presented the Best Actress (special) award for her performance in ‘Mirugam’. Vairamuthu received the Best Lyricist award for 2007 for his work in ‘Periyar’.

For 2008, ‘Dasavatharam’ won the Best Film award with poet Vaali winning the Best Lyricist award. Special awards for Best Actor and Actress awards for 2008 were presented to Suriya for ‘Varanam Aayiram’ and Trisha for ‘Abhiyum Naanum’, respectively.

Maestro Illayaraja was received the Best Music Director award for his score in 'Ajantha'. Mahathi received the Best Female Singer award for ‘Nenjathai Killathey’. Pelliraja was presented the Best Male Singer award for ‘Subramaniapuram’

The function, which was attended by almost the entire film industry, was preceded by a colourful performance by leading actors.

RAMESWARAM: Six Sri Lankan Fishermen, who were taken into custody by the Coastal Security Group (CSG) last night for fishing in Indian waters off Karaikal coast, were formally arrested today.
Cases were registered against them on the orders of District Collector, T N Hariharan after which they were produced before Judicial Magistrate S Kumaresan, who remanded them to judicial custody.

Chennai, Dec 8 Six unidentified men robbed about 20 bus passengers travelling from Chennai to Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, police said Tuesday.
According to police, the state government bus left for Thanjavur from here at 7 p.m. Monday. While the bus was near Jayamkondan, it stopped at Meensuruti and some passengers got down.

At the same time, four people alighted from a Tata Sumo and boarded the bus, saying that they would like to go to Thanjavur.

After some time, one of the four went near the driver and held a sickle at his neck and ordered him to stop the bus.

Another snatched the cash bag held by the conductor. Two other passengers, who were travelling in the bus, then joined the four and started threatening the passengers and robbed their valuables.

A police inspector, who was travelling in the bus, tried to prevent the robbery but was attacked and pushed out of the vehicle. His mobile phone was snatched by the robbers.

Later a Tata Sumo stopped near the bus and all the miscreants fled in it.

The Jayamkondan police have registered a case.