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Jaya asks for TN minister's head

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha Jayaram today asked Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi to drop Tourism Minister Suresh Rajan from the cabinet and have him arrested and prosecuted for abusing a Dalit functionary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and assaulting him.

In a statement in Madras, Jayalalitha alleged that instead of taking action against the minister, Karunanidhi was trying to make the Dalit functionary withdraw the criminal case he had filed against Rajan and agree to a compromise.

Jayalalitha said Manikandan, a resident of Nagercoil, who is the town secretary of the farmers' wing of the DMK, has lodged a complaint with the police that the minister, his personal secretary Ramesh Markandan, and advocate Ramesh stopped their car at Valliyur on their way back from the DMK conference at Tirunelveli,on sighting Manikandan at a tea shop. The minister then abused him by calling him by his caste name and the three attacked him, she added.

UNI

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