Ex-AIADMK Minister Manikandan sent to judicial custody in rape case

Former AIADMK minister M Manikandan, who has been booked under charges of cheating and rape, has been sent to judicial custody till July 2 after he was arrested by the Chennai police in Bengaluru on Sunday. Special teams set up to arrest the Former IT Minister brought Manikandan to Chennai, after he was allegedly absconding as the Madras High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea. According to reports, the police is said to have questioned Manikandan for nearly two hours on Sunday.

The Adyar All-Women Police Station has registered a case against Manikandan under sections 376 (rape), 313 (causing miscarriage without women’s consent), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 417 (punishment for cheating) and 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. The case was registered after a complaint by a 32-year-old actor who said that Manikandan had been in a live-in relationship with her for five years and promised to marry her. He had allegedly impregnated the woman and forced her to undergo an abortion. The woman, a Malaysian-born Indian, who is also an actor in the Tamil film industry, alleged that the ex-minister also threatened her and her family.

Reports further claim that Manikandan met the woman in 2017, and befriended her under the pretext of investing in a business in Malaysia. Subsequently, the minister expressed his wish to marry her, while he was already married. Manikandan has denied all allegations with his counsel even arguing in court that the woman tried to extort money from the AIADMK leader and had filed a false complaint to defame the ex-minister.

However, the Madras High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea and also refused to grant him interim protection from arrest. The court while rejecting the anticipatory bail application had noted that the charges against him were serious and that he could tamper with the evidence given the fact that he was holding a powerful post in the state of Tamil Nadu as an ex-minister. Manikandan was elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly from Ramanathapuram constituency and held office between 2016 and 2019.