File photo of KV Ramalingam
Acting upon a police complaint, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today dropped her Sports Minister, KV Ramalingam, from the cabinet. Sources within the AIADMK say that the reason for the minister's ouster was a recent police complaint against him alleging land-grabbing attempts in his hometown Erode.
RB Udhayakumar will now be inducted in his place.
The police complaint, filed by a family in Erode, had said that a group close to Ramalingam had
taken over their property worth Rs 50 lakh.
The police hasn't filed an FIR yet and say investigations are underway. A senior officer added that the land was "still under the possession of the complainant's family only".
The previous DMK regime faced huge allegations of land-grabbing. Several former ministers and party functionaries were put behind bars on land grab charges after the AIADMK took over in 2011.
The state government had also set up a special cell to investigate the complaints and restore the lands to their real owners.