CHENNAI: Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) president Anbumani Ramadoss, who was arrested in the early morning has been released now. Anbumani along with the party's rank and file protested the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) expansion today which erupted into a violent protest.

Thousands of PMK cadres participated in the protest and raised slogans against NLC. After the arrest, police took Anbumani Ramadoss to a nearby private marriage hall.

The land acquisition for NLC mining expansion is underway in the villages of Valayamadevi village near Bhuvanagiri in Cuddalore district During the past two days, villagers demanded that crops should not be destroyed, but the corporation began their work. 

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court has slammed the NLC for taking possession of agricultural lands and destroying crops before harvest in Valayamadevi and its surroundings. The bench observed it was a sorry sight to see crops getting destroyed in a land where Saint Vallalar said he was saddened whenever he saw crops wilting.

(With inputs from ANI)