COIMBATORE: A DMK panchayat president has been arrested after he deliberately knocked down a 57-year-old man for allegedly stalling the road-laying work by the panchayat in a private land in Tirupur.

The deceased, Palaniswami (57) from Karugampalayam in Samalapuram was returning home from a tea shop when a rashly driven car knocked him down from behind on the Samalapuram-Karanampettai Road on Wednesday evening.

The vehicle then sped away without stopping, while the body of the deceased was sent for a post-mortem.

After an inquiry, the Mangalam police nabbed Samalapuram Town Panchayat President Palaniswami (60), for causing the mishap. Initially, police suspected that he had caused the mishap while in an inebriated condition.

When some people raised doubts over the cause of the mishap, the police probed further to find out that the panchayat president had deliberately run over him after he stalled road-laying works in a private land by the panchayat, which is of no use to the public.

“The works were stopped following his petition to the district administration authorities. In revenge, the panchayat president staged the accident,” police said.

The accused, who won the polls as an independent candidate in the last local body polls, had joined the DMK and secured the posting.