more-in Despite widespread allegations that 130 AIADMK MLAs, who have allegedly extended their support for the elevation of the party’s general secretary V.K. Sasikala as the Chief Minister, are being kept under illegal detention in a resort, an Additional Public Prosecutor informed the Madras High Court on Thursday morning that most of the MLAs were “free and safe in the MLA hostel at Chepauk.” V.M. Rajendran, Additional Public Prosecutor of the State government, made the submission in the court after an urgent mention was moved by advocate K. Balu and activist ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy in the habeas corpus Bench of the High Court. Mr. Balu, who appeared for M.R. Elavarasan, an advocate and a voter from Kunnam Assembly Constituency, contended that on February 8, the constituency’s MLA R.T. Ramachandran visited Chennai to attend the AIADMK MLAs meeting at the party headquarters. But after that, he did not return back to the constituency, and his whereabouts could not be traced. “After a vigorous search, I came to know that the AIADMK MLAs were illegally detained in a resort in ECR. The detention is purely political and the elected representatives cannot be denied the right to choose the Chief Minister as per their will,” the petitioner said. Alleging that the police had failed to prevent the illegal detention, the petitioner wanted the court to direct the police to trace and produce Mr. Ramachandran before the court. Mr. Ramaswamy also submitted that the court should intervene and direct the authorities to trace and produce all the AIADMK MLAs. However, questioning the locus standi of the petitioners in moving the habeas corpus plea, the Division Bench of Justices M. Jayachandran and T. Mathivanan declined to entertain the pleas on urgent basis. The Bench noted that the pleas may be considered if it is moved as a proper petition in the due course. Later, in the evening, Mr. Elavarasan filed a proper habeas corpus petition for tracing Mr. Ramachandran. Similarly, advocate V. Preetha, who claimed to be the second cousin of Krishnarayapuram MLA M. Geetha, moved a habeas corpus seeking to trace and produce Ms. Geetha. Meanwhile, former AIADMK MP K.C. Palaniswamy approached the Madras High Court assailing the election of V.K. Sasikala as the “interim” general secretary of AIADMK, and has sought a direction to the Election Commission of India to consider his request seeking to appoint an independent officer to conduct the election for the post. The plea has been forwarded to Chief Justice S.K. Kaul, who will now decide on its maintainability.

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