Days after a Tamil actress accused former ADMK Minister Manikandan of cheating to marry her, the Chennai police had on Sunday booked Manikandan under the grounds of rape and cheating. The shocking allegations against the minister, who has already been sidelined in the party, have further fueled his decline. On May 28, a popular Tamil actress had lodged a complaint against Manikandan for refusing to marry her and threatening to kill her if she dares to speak about the illicit relationship. 

The complaint had stunned the party and has come in line when the state has been witnessing the exhuming of series of sexual harassment allegations from top schools in Chennai. The actress has on Friday moved her complaint to the Chennai Police Commissioner against former ADMK Minister Manikandan. In her complaint, she had alleged that the former minister had refused to marry her after living together for five years. She shockingly said that Manikandan had made her pregnant three times. 

She alleged that Manikandan has forced her to abort the fetus all three times and has tortured her and threatened her that he will release their private photos and will hire mercenaries to kill her if she opens up about the relationship in the public. Apart from filing a complaint, she had also submitted photographs and other proofs of her relationship with the former ADMK Minister to the Chennai Police. 

According to reports, based on her complaint, the Adyar All-Women Police station had on Sunday filed a case against Manikandan under sections 376 - rape, 323 - punishment for voluntarily causing hurt, 313- causing miscarriage without woman's consent, 417- punishment for cheating, 506 (i) - criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code. The police had also booked a case against the former ADMK Minister under the Information Technology Act. 

With robust charges, the police department is all set to launch the probe against the former minister. The actress is a citizen of Malaysia and the reports say that Manikandan had her introduction between 2016 and 2017 while he was serving as the minister. He got close to her under the guise of making investments in Malaysia. He went on to express his interest to marry her, despite the fact that he is already married to another woman, post which they began to live together.

Manikandan was elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in the 2016 polls from the Ramanathapuram constituency and he was named as the Minister for Information and Technology by the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. He was serving as the minister from 2016 to 2019 and he was removed from the cabinet by Jayalalithaa's successor Edappadi Palaniswami after he dissented against the latter. He then got sidelined from the party and didn't contest in the 2021 assembly polls.