CHENNAI: Kancheepuram police on Wednesday arrested DMK Lok Sabha MP and actor J K Ritheesh on charges of land grabbing. He was picked up from his residence in Mylapore by a special team of the anti-land grabbing cell following a complaint lodged by a resident of Sriperumbudur on October 29.Additional district superintendent V Baskaran told Express that the arrest came after inquiry into a complaint made by a farmer, E Samikannu of Paapankuzhi village in Senthamangalam, Sriperumbudur, alleging that Ritheesh had forged documents pertaining to 1.47 acres of land belonging to him and sold it to a Delhi-based realtor firm. “Ritheesh forged a power deed using Samikannu’s photo and signature obtained during an earlier, genuine transaction,” Baskaran said. “On verifying the signature and thumb impression on the document relating to the disputed land, we found that they were forged and did not belong to Samikannu.” The probe showed that Ritheesh had sold the land to two administrative officers, Lakshmanan and Balasubramanian of Delhi-based Hathor Realtors Pvt Ltd. The police suspect that the firm belongs to the actor. Since the accused person was a sitting MP, the police team took every legal precaution before making the arrest around 6.30am. “We intimated Ritheesh’s wife. His lawyers reached Sriperumbudur even before he was brought here,” the ADSP said. “We have informed the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Secretary-General and senior police officials of the state, including the DGP,” he added.The actor-MP was booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 465, 467, 468, 471 (all pertaining to forgery) read with Section 109 of the IPC. After extracting a confessional statement, he was produced before the Sriperumbudur court, which remanded him to 15 days judicial custody. He was later lodged at the Central prison in Vellore. Ritheesh was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from the Ramanathapuram constituency in 2009, when he defeated Sathyamurthy of the AIADMK by over 69,000 votes.
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