The two had allegedly demanded money for not publishing certain information regarding the Madurai quarry owners association.
The editor of a Tamil daily and his son were arrested today in Madurai for allegedly extorting Rs five lakh from office-bearers of a quarry owners association.
S Manimaran, editor of Thinaboomi, and his son M Ramesh Kumar were arrested on a complaint from P Periasamy, president of the Madurai quarry owners association, that the two had demanded the money for not publishing certain information regarding the quarries, the police said.
The two were produced before a local court which remanded them to 15 days judicial custody.
Cases have been registered against them under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 384 (extortion), 387 (causing grievous injury) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
According to the complaint forwarded to the local police by IGP (South Zone) Krishnamurthy, the editor had taken the money after threatening and abusing the association functionaries, including Periyasamy, on June 18.
The case was registered a day after the association president convened a press conference here and said that some persons were spreading wrong information about quarries and creating confusion among the people.
The daily had recently carried a news item with pictures about alleged illegal mining of granite, which it claimed, caused a loss of Rs 1,500 crore to the exchequer.
The report alleged that the quarry owners had violated the Minor Mineral Concession rules. A survey conducted with the help of satellite pictures indicated that mining had been done in areas not permitted by the government, and waste granite had been stored in places other than the mines in violation of the rules, it claimed.
General manager of the daily, Ramasubramanian, however, claimed that the IGP and the district collector did not take any action on the complaints given by them "with sufficient documentary evidence" and arrested the editor for "strange reasons".
He said the daily gave specific survey numbers where the mined granite had been stored illegally and demanded action from the collector, who was not available for comment.
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