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Karunanidhi breaks down at press conference

A normally composed Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi broke down at least twice before the press corps on Wednesday when he narrated the sequence of events of his arrest on Saturday last.

"I was woken up by my wife Rajathy Ammal whom I saw weeping. She told me that a police team had entered the house," Karunanidhi said.

"Then I saw over 20 policemen entering the bedroom after breaking open the door. They surrounded me," he said.

The former Tamil Nadu chief minister said he was not even allowed to change his dress. "When I wanted to wear my undergarments, I was not allowed to go to my private room," he said.

He alleged that the police roughed him up, dragged him and arrested him even without any charges or an arrest warrant.

In a choked voice he said he had not seen such police repression, alleging that one police officer pulled him down, roughed him up and ordered his subordinates to drag him from the floor.

"I am having pain in my legs and hands even now, and I cannot write," he said.

He added that he might resort to legal action against the police officers responsible for the 'assault' on him.

Karunanidhi said he was made to wait in a dark room in the crime branch office. He said he suffered untold mental agony when he heard that his nephew and Union Minister Murasoli Maran, a heart patient, was 'assaulted by police.'

"The happenings in Tamil Nadu of late, the action against mediapersons and my arrest on Saturday last are the finest examples of human rights violations," Karunanidhi said.

He said he had not seen such 'gross violations of human rights' during his over 60 years of public life, except during the emergency in 1975.

Asked whether his arrest was due to personal animosity between him and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi, who is known for his sense of humour, said "I am not Sudhakaran (the disowned foster son of Jayalalithaa who was recently arrested)."

Karunanidhi said he would prove his innocence in the alleged 'flyover scam' in court itself. He, however, hastened to add there was no case at all.

Karunanidhi thanked the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Ministers Lal Kishenchand Advani, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Surinder Singh Dhindsa, National Democratic Alliance Convenor George Fernandes and the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala for condemning the manner in which he was arrested.

He had a special word of appreciation for the media, which, he said, condemned the 'gross violations' in one voice.

PTI

Karunanidhi's Arrest: The Complete Coverage

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