Madras high court allows Karunanidhi's body to be buried at Marina Beach
Chennai, Aug 8 : After an overnight drama, the DMK won a legal battle on wednesday when the Madras High Court allowed the burial of DMK President and five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi at Marina Beach.
The High Court bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice S.S. Sundar turned down the arguments of the state government against the burial of Karunanidhi's body at Marina Beach.
DMK leader and lawyer Kannadasan told reporters that the court also asked the government to make arrangements for the burial.
The party cadres and leaders assembled at Rajaji Hall, where Karunanidhi's body has been lying in state for public homage, erupted in joy on hearing the news.
An emotional M.K. Stalin, DMK's Working President and son of Karunanidhi broke down on hearing the news and so did top leaders including Duraimurugan, A.Raja and M. Kanimozhi, who is alos Karunanidhi's daughter.
Duraimurugan and A. Raja comforted Stalin and other family members including former Union Minister and Karunanidhi's grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi.
Earlier all the petitioners who had filed a case against the memorial for AIADMK's late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said they are withdrawing their petitions and the court dismissed their pleas.
The DMK wanted Karunanidhi to be interred near the seafront memorial of DMK founder and Karunanidhi's mentor C.N. Annadurai.
The DMK approached the Madras High Court on Tuesday night after the state government declined their request. The hearing went on till midnight when the court adjourned the case directing the state government and Chennai Corporation to file their affidavits on Wednesday.
The AIADMK government late on Tuesday rejected the request and asked the DMK to bury Karunanidhi on Sardar Patel Road which is home to memorials dedicated to Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) and K. Kamaraj.
The court asked the government counsel to explain the legal issues in allotting space at Marina Beach as mentioned in the statement issued by the government on Tuesday.
The DMK counsel argued that the government is citing minor issues for rejecting the party's request for space at Marina Beach for burying Karunanidhi.
The DMK said Karunanidhi is an ardent follower of party founder and Annadurai. Since AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran was also a follower of Annadurai he was buried near the latter's memorial.
According to DMK, the ideologies of late Congress leaders like Rajagopalachari and Kamaraj are different from that of what was followed by Dravidian leaders like Annadurai and Karunanidhi.
Hence it will not be appropriate to bury Karunanidhi at the site offered by the state government.
The DMK also argued that the Chennai Corporation has announced the Annadurai memorial Beach as a burial site.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
