Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai on Wednesday wrote to DGP Shankar Jiwal alleging Union Minister and his party leader, L Murugan, was heckled by police in Madurai and slammed "blatant misuse of power."

Referring to Murugan's visit on February 17 to Madurai to offer prayers at the Thirupparankundram temple, Annamalai conveyed to Jiwal about "police mishandling the security detail" of the union minister.

"It is disheartening to know that the honourable minister has been heckled by the police deployed at the entrance of the temple,..." Annamalai said in his letter to the top police official.

The BJP leader said that it was even more depressing to learn that when the honourable minister questioned the officers about the instantaneious ban on his visit to the Arulmigu Subramaniya Swami temple and Arulmigu Kasi Viswanathar temple on the Thirupparankundram hill, they replied that they had received orders from the high command not to allow him to visit the temples.

"The point of contention here is the blatant misuse of power vested to the police in depriving a member of Parliament of his right to worship at a place of his choice at a point where his security was at stake. This raises serious doubt among the general public who are already petrified by unprecedented occurrences of crimes in Tamil Nadu in recent times on the deliverance of security and protection to the common masses. If a member of Parliament and a minister could be heckled in such a manner, what is the state of the common people in our state?" Annamalai asked.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.