CHENNAI: BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai on Thursday demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the “larger conspiracy behind” a petrol bomb attack on the party headquarters, Kamalalayam, in the city and the torching of a party worker’s vehicle in Nagapattinam district.
It reflected the deterioration of law and order in the state, he said. He also accused the state intelligence agencies of tapping his phone and of illegal surveillance and called for a high court-monitored probe into their activities.
Union minister of state for information and broadcasting L Murugan, reiterating the demand for NIA probe, dubbed the attack a cowardly act and said law and order had deteriorated in the state in the last eight months. He said such attacks would not deter BJP cadres from carrying out their work.
Annamalai also questioned the police’s arrest of a man for hurling the petrol bomb, allegedly to protest against NEET. “I doubt if he even knows what NEET is. Why are police jumping to conclusions based on the accused’s claim, that too, before filing the first information report (FIR)?”
He said there have been several attacks on BJP offices and functionaries in the state in recent days. “We have taken the issue to the notice of the national leadership (of the BJP) and they expressed concern,” he said to a query whether such incidents were brought to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party higher-ups. Annamalai also questioned the state government’s decision to downgrade his security from ‘Y’ category to ‘X’ category.
He charged that the state intelligence had misguided the Ariyalur superintendent of police in the Lavanya case to divert attention from the real reason for the girl’s suicide. Former chief minister and AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam blamed the ruling DMK government for the attack on BJP headquarters. “On behalf of the AIADMK, I strongly condemn the attack on the BJP office,” he said. OPS charged that the DMK had no regard for the rule of law. The DMK had unleashed violence on the day of local body polls in 2006, he said and added that in the current elections, it had started violence much earlier, during the campaign itself.
