Chennai Police probes 'Meghalaya Project', an alleged plot to poach 15 TVK MLAs

Chennai Police are probing a plot codenamed "Meghalaya Project", which was allegedly a plan hatched to destabilise the ruling TVK government led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay. Police say the objective of the plotters was to allegedly induce nearly fifteen MLAs of the ruling TVK through illegal monetary inducements, thereby attempting to destabilise the elected government of the state. In recent weeks, both the ruling TVK and the principal opposition DMK have been hurling serious charges of horse-trading against each other. Notably, six MLAs of the AIADMK, the third-largest party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, had resigned from their elected roles to join the ruling TVK, which added more fuel to the horse-trading allegations against Vijay's party.

A couple of weeks ago, TVK MLA Ilayaraja had approached the police, claiming that he was contacted over the phone by an individual who offered him Rs.35 crore as a bribe. Allegedly, the bribewas being offered to get the MLAto vote in a certain way during a future Assembly session. On rejecting this offer, the MLAclaims to have been threatened. After making multiple arrests in this case, including that of the main accused Thirunavukkarasu, Police had said that the arrested individuals had links to former DMK Minister Senthil Balaji and his brother. Police also made further arrests in the case. Senthil Balaji and his brother Ashok Kumar managed to obtain anticipatory bail from the Madras High Court. However, the court asked the duo to cooperate with the police probe.

In the latest development, Chennai police say that Thirunavukkarasu, who is the main accused in theMLAbribery case, had conspired the "Meghalaya Project" with the other accused. Police allege that Thirunavukkarasu's objective was to

induce nearly fifteen Tamilaga Vettri KazhagamMLAs through

illegal monetary inducements and that this was meant to destabilise the elected government.

After examining documentary and digital evidence collected during the investigation, Police alleged that a Senior Journalist of a Chennai-based Tamil TV Channel had exchanged objectionable electronic communications with the main accused, Thirunavukkarasu. They further alleged that the journalist had remained in continuous contact with him during the period of the alleged criminal conspiracy. Police summoned the journalist, and recorded his statement. After this,, the journalist's mobile phone was seized for forensic examination, and he was instructed to appear when required for further examination.

Tamil Nadu's principal opposition party, DMK, has lashed out at the Police department for its actions with regards the journalist. DMK Parliamentarian and senior advocate P. Wilson termed the Police actions as “condemnable, inhumane, and a violation of fundamental rights.” It was added that the senior journalist was mistreated and harassed by the police, including the seizure of his mobile phone when he was summoned at midnight for an inquiry. DMK demanded that the inquiry officer and his immediate superior be held accountable for human rights violations.