Cane happy Pernambut Tahsildar asks volunteers to emulate him

On Saturday when Naveed (35) of QuaidE-Milleth Nagar of Erimuthi near the town remonstrated the volunteers over their vehicles being parked haphazardly in front of his watermelon godown, it led to an argument. Murugan, who was informed of it, came to the spot and stated that volunteers were also akin to Tahsildars and then beat up Naveed resulting in the residents rushing him to the Pernambut Government Hospital.

Naveed then lodged a complaint against Murugan with the local police, who according to sources, had approached their higher ups on how to handle this issue.

Similarly, Suhail Ahamed (42), a heart patient and resident of Mohammed Ali Street was berated by volunteers when he was sitting in front of his house. When he objected to the volunteers using force on people, they attempted to cane him resulting in locals intervening and warning the volunteers who then left. But Murugan arrived at Ahamed’s house on Sunday and abused him. Ahamed said he had recorded Murugan’s abuses and planned to lodged a complaint.

However, Murugan is not without supporters. According to S Towfeek Ahamed, town coordinator of the DMK’s IT wing, “The Tahsildar returned tea cans which he seized from locals two days ago on Sunday and advised them on the dangers of COVID-19. He then gave them Rs 1,000 each and asked them to stay indoors.” There are also complaints that most volunteers misuse their ID tags.