History-sheeter hurls petrol ‘bombs” at TN BJP HQ, party demands NIA probe

Chennai: Seeking to show his ‘opposition’ to the BJP’s pro-NEET stand, a 38-year old man on Thursday hurled petrol ‘bombs’ at the Tamil Nadu headquarters of the BJP here, police said.

Demanding a National Investigation Agency probe, the state unit of the BJP dismissed as a ‘film dialogue’, the police tagging the test issue being the likely motive. Anti-national forces and fundamentalists should be arrested, the Saffron party TN president, K Annamalai told reporters here condemning the attack. He demanded that the ruling DMK do ‘self-introspection’ and he alleged deterioration of law and order in the state.

The attack on his party office is only a continuation of an increase in violence and other crimes, he alleged. The BJP chief underscored a ‘pattern’ by listing out crimes targeted at party functionaries and offices in other places of the state since February 9 evening. Annamalai said that in Nagapattinam, a car of an office-bearer was burnt and offices set up to coordinate urban civic polls related work were vandalised in Chennai, Tirupur and Vellore. Such attacks showed a clear pattern and a larger criminal conspiracy as well, he claimed.

The police citing the test row as the motive hence cannot be accepted, he said and alleged that police ‘cleaned’ the evidence. FIR was ‘not filed’ and none from the forensic wing collected materials for examination, the BJP leader alleged. He wondered ‘why water was poured’ on evidence related things and taken away by police.

A proper examination and probe vis-a-vis the scene of crime should be done rather than stating that it was an act by a Goonda to show his opposition to the party’s stand on NEET, he said. ”This is like a film dialogue. The BJP demands NIA probe and the anti-national forces and fundamentalists should be brought to book, whoever they may be. NIA probe is the only solution and only that would prevent recurrence of such incidents. The Tamil Nadu government should hand over the case to the NIA.” In the early hours, after setting fire to three bottles filled with petrol, the man in his thirties threw them at the BJP state headquarters.

The man, a known history-sheeter, arrived on a two-wheeler and quickly fled the spot after hurling the bottles at the entrance area of the party office.

Police was alerted immediately and a team of officials inspected the spot and CCTV cameras were scrutinised. The BJP HQ is located in downtown T Nagar.

It was found that the miscreant was 38-year old Vinoth alias ‘Karukka’ Vinoth, who faces a bunch of criminal cases including attempts to murder and he was arrested, a city police release said.

According to a preliminary probe, there is no political or religious aspect to this attack and Vinoth has a history of carrying out such attacks, under the influence of alcohol, in matters of public interest.

The probe revealed that he had thrown the bottles to show his opposition to the BJP’s stand supporting the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test. The investigation is continuing.

In 2015, he had thrown a petrol bomb at a liquor retail outlet and in 2017 at the entrance of Teynampet police station here in connection with some issues. He was arrested in both the cases and had been remanded to judicial custody. Barring the BJP, other political parties in Tamil Nadu are opposed to the national entrance test for medical admissions and on February 8, a Bill was adopted again by the Assembly to bypass the examination in the state.