Sasikala's visit leads to tension in Kuvathur

Chennai: Tension prevailed on Saturday evening in Kuvathur, after local residents threatened to resort to block East Coast Road and prevent AIADMK general secretary V. K. Sasikala, from going back to Chennai after visiting the MLAs staying at the Golden Bay resort.

Police had to chase away the protesters to make way for the AIADMK party chief. Following this, additional police personnel were deployed in the area.
Local residents wanted all MLAs to be vacated from the resort as their presence had turned their life upside down with some ‘anti-social elements’ taking control of the area. People claimed that they were not allowed to go fishing and use the road. Since Wednesday night, all streetlights have been switched off on the road leading to the resort as well as in the area.

“Wednesday night I was stopped and questioned in harsh manner by some youth. I was returning home after working in Chennai. After that I have not gone to work,” claimed Raghunath of Kaatankdai. He said he didn’t want to go through the same harassment again.

R. Anjalai of Adayalachery fishing hamlet feels that the tension between the AIADMK rival factions could lead to some untoward incident in the area. “We witnessed police excess in fishermen village during jallikattu violence. We can’t go through the same kind of experience again. If the MLAs vacate the resort, our neighbourhood will be normal again,” she said.

People in Chinnakuppam, Periyakuppam and Alaikuppam said they were also affected by the presence of unruly youth who had taken over the entire village around the resort. When Mahabalipuram DSP Umapathy tried to go to the resort on Friday night, the agitated villagers stopped his vehicle and he had to make a hasty retreat. Reporters were also stopped 2 km ahead of the resort by the unidentified men on Saturday morning and some men were pelting stones at mediapersons.

Officials visit resorts to take statement from MLAs

Kancheepuram district administration and police on Saturday morning inspected the Golden Bay resorts in Kuvathur and village retreat resort in Mahabalipuram where a good number of AIADMK MLAs, reportedly belonging to Sasikala camp, are staying and interacted with everyone of them to know whether they were forced to stay at the resort or were there at their own will.

A team consisting of Cheyyur tahsildar Ramachandran and additional superintendent of police Tamil Selvan visited the resorts, where the MLAs, are staying since Wednesday night, from 6.30 am on Saturday.

“We visited the resort and took statements from MLAs staying there. We are supposed to submit a detailed report to the court by Monday. We are preparing the report,” one of the officials part of the inspecting team said.

It may be noted that over dozen MLAs staying in Golden Bay resort had told the media on Friday that they were not confined there. Police and district administration were asked to interact with the legislators staying in the two resorts to file a report in the court by February 13.

When a petition, regarding the whereabouts of MLAs, came up for haring on Friday at the high court, public prosecutor had asked time till Monday to find out where about of the legislators and to submit report. By Saturday evening, after AIADMK general secretary visited the MLAs staying at the Kuvathur resort, additional police force were deployed in the area.