Tamil Nadu: BJP chief whips himself protesting deteriorating law & order

Tamil Naidu BJP chief K. Annamalai staged a dramatic protest on Friday. He whipped himself six times at the front of his residence in Coimbatore. On Thursday, he vowed to remain barefoot until the ruling DMK is ousted from power.

Annamalai’s protests follow the arrest of a biryani vendor in connection with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student on the Anna University campus in Chennai.

Apparently, the flogging is aimed to boost both his and the BJP’s image in Tamil Nadu, where the party lacks a foothold. Annamalai, it can be said, succeeded in getting to the limelight, to some extent as many national media also published about the self-affliction.

The opposition parties, including the AIADMK, and others also protested against the assault but failed to gain much publicity.

Annamalai lamented that the law and order in the state was at an abysmal level as a repeated offender like Gnanasekaran, the accused in the sexual assault at Anna University, was not on the rowdy list because he has connection with the DMK leaders, indirectly hinting that the crimes were being abetted by the ruling party.

On December 24, a second-year engineering student filed a complaint with the Greater Chennai police stating that she was sexually assaulted inside the university by a stranger, in front of her male friend the evening before.

Following the complaint, police initiated an inquiry and arrested 37-year-old Gnanasekaran, a Kottur resident, who runs a biryani stall beside the road near the university. Reporetdly, Gnanasekaran confessed to the crime during interrogation, after being arrested on Wednesday.

The arrest of Gnansekaran led to a political outburst in Tamil Nadu after the BJP cadre released photos of the accused felicitating Deputy Chief Minister Udayanidhi Stalin with a shawl.

The TN BJP chief fumed at the state police for leaking the FIR to the press, which also mentioned that the accused threatened to make the video of the assault public.

Lamenting that law and order situation was very poor and women were lacking safety in the DMK rule, he said that the police were only interested in silencing the opposition but not maintaining the law and order.

Annamalai demanded that Chief Minister MK Stalin take responsibility for the incident and tell the public about the status of the case.

Meanwhile, state law minister S. Regupathy said there was no truth in Annamalai’s allegations that the accused has connections with the DMK.

Greater Chennai police commissioner A. Arun said that leaking the FIR of a sexual assault case is a crime.