Coimbatore, Nov 28 (PTI) A Personal Assistant (PA) of former Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami was arrested in Omalur in neighbouring Salem district on Sunday on charges of collecting lakhs of rupees from many people by promising to secure them government jobs. Based on a complaint from Tamilselvan of Neyveli that the personal assistant Mani had taken Rs 17 lakh from him on the promise of getting assistant engineer post in the Transport department but failed to fulfil his promise and reportedly threatened him of dire consequences if he complained, the Salem Crime Branch registered a case against him a month ago. Police also registered a case against Selvakumar, a broker. Mani had approached the district court seeking anticipatory bail, which was rejected following which he filed a petition in the Madras High Court. Since the High Court also rejected the petition, it paved the way for his arrest. Sleuths from the Crime Branch on receipt of information that Mani was in his house in Nadupatti near Omalur, rushed there and arrested him in the early hours, police said. Police are interrogating Mani as there are complaints from a few others that they had paid him to the tune of over Rs 50 lakh. PTI NVM SS SS