Chandrasekar, 27, was caught carrying Rs500mn in his inside a Mercedes Benz car. He admitted that he was planning to ‘buy’ the ‘two leaves’ party symbol for Dinakaran.
The school dropout has been involved in cheating cases from the age of 17. In August 2007, he duped a Bengaluru-based businessman of hundreds of thousands of rupees in a bogus land deal. Similarly in 2011, he was arrested for posing as DMK patriarch Karunanidhi’s grandson and cheating people with promises of government jobs.
He was also arrested for a car hire purchase scam and in 2015 he was caught with his girlfriend actress Leena Maria Paul for defrauding Canara Bank in Ambattur, Chennai of Rs190mn.
Sukesh and Leena reportedly led a life of luxury with the loot.
Two dead, 81 hurt in jallikattu
Two men died and 81 were injured in a jallikattu or bull taming event held at Thirukoshtiyur village in Sivaganga district about 450km from Chennai last week.
Reports said that one victim was gored to death, while the second died of heat stroke.
Meanwhile the angry bulls charged into the crowds seated in a semi-circular arena around the main pit. Police used force to prevent a stampede.
Jallikattu, a traditional harvest event, was banned by the federal government for nearly two years. However the ban was revoked this January after a statewide protest that lasted two weeks.
Translated novel wins top award
One Part Woman, a translation of Tamil author Perumal Murugan’s controversial novel Madhoroobogan, won the national Sahitya Akademy award for 2016 for the best translation last week.
Aniruddhan Vasudevan, the translator, will receive the award along with 23 others at a ceremony in June in New Delhi. The award carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs50,000.
Ironically Perumal Murugan, the author of this 2012 novel, was shamed publicly for its alleged blasphemous content.
Perumal Murugan even declared publicly that he would never write another novel. However, a court dismissed petitions against him and requested him to resume writing.
Schools declare early vacation
The Tamil Nadu government has ordered schools to declare summer vacation from April 22 instead of April 30 due to an extreme heat wave.
School Education minister K A Sengottaiyan said any exams between April 21 and 29 would be postponed and ordered all summer classes to be suspended.
Meanwhile the Anna University, the governing body for engineering/medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu, has decided to commence online registration from May 1 to May 31. The last date for submitting the applications is June 3 and single window counselling will begin from June 27. Higher Education Minister K P Anbazhagan commissioned the online process.
Kamal accused of defaming epic tale
Versatile award winning actor/producer/ script writer Kamalhaasan has been summoned by a court at Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district for alleged derogatory remarks against the ancient Hindu text Mahabharata.
Petitioner V A Sundaram claimed that Kamalhaasan in a March 12 interview to a private television channel, commented about how in the Mahabharata, Panchali was used as a pawn while the men gambled.