PMK leader Ramadoss released on bail

PMK leader S. Ramadoss was released Saturday on bail after spending 12 days in the central jail in Tiruchirapalli, around 350 km from here.

Speaking to reporters after his release, Ramadoss said there was no "basic amenity in the prison and he and his party cadres suffered".

He said the arrest of PMK leaders and cadres was done with an eye on Dalit votes.

According to him, the violence would not have occurred if he had not been arrested; he also blamed the VCK party for the violence.

Ramadoss was arrested for defying police orders April 30, and was sent to 15 days' judicial custody.

He was arrested while trying to hold a demonstration at Vilupuram, around 170 km from here, demanding an inquiry into the April 25 violence at Marakkanam near here.

The arrest came a day after Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa categorically blamed the violence on the PMK and Ramadoss's "hate speech" at the party's youth conference at Mamallapuram, around 70 km from here.

On May 3, former union minister Anbumani Ramadoss, father of S. Ramadoss, was arrested in connection with a speech that he made last year, and later released on bail.

Several political parties faulted the PMK for the violence after Ramadoss' arrest, and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi had said that Ramadoss and his party men should mind their language.