Stalin, EPS continue to trade barbs over crimes
The war of words between Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami over crimes in the state continued on Wednesday
The war of words between Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) over crimes in the state continued on Wednesday, a day after the 2019 Pollachi sexual assault case verdict where nine convicts were imprisoned for life.
Stalin said that similar justice would be served in the 2017 Kodanad heist-cum-murder case.
“Before the 2019 Parliamentary polls, I had said that perpetrators of the Pollachi crime, however influential they may be, would be punished. That has happened,” he told reporters in Ooty. The sexual assaults in Pollachi were “an indication of the evil rule under the then CM EPS”, Stalin said.
The CM said Palaniswami recently visited Union home minister Amit Shah. “The nation knows the reason for him meeting Shah,” hinting that it was for stitching an alliance with the BJP. “Palaniswami claimed that he had batted for release of funds to Tamil Nadu for MGNREGA and Metro Rail phase-2. Humbug, lies and trickery; these are Palaniswami’s work. People are very much aware of this,” he said.
To a reporter’s question on the Kodanad case, Stalin said, “Just like justice was served in the Pollachi case, justice will also be served in the Kodanad case.”
Responding to Stalin’s comments, EPS questioned Stalin’s role in the convicts being punished. “In the Pollachi case, it was the AIADMK government that made the arrest, and shifted the case to the CBI,” EPS said.
“The CBI investigated it and the verdict has been delivered by the court. What role did Stalin have here?”
EPS accused the Stalin government of deteriorating law and order and specifically sexual crimes against women and children highlighting the sexual assault of a college student last year in Chennai’s Anna University where “the lone accused is a DMK supporter”.
Speaking about the Kodanad case, EPS said, “Under the AIADMK rule, an FIR was registered, the accused were arrested and a charge sheet was also filed.” He said an advocate appearing for one of the accused in the case belonged to the DMK. “The biggest humbug is the DMK’s governance in the past 4 years,” EPS added.
“Whenever I meet the Central ministers, I speak on the state’s welfare, I get funds for the state and that is my sentiment for Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The Kodanad tea estate in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district was Jayalalithaa’s summer retreat and sometimes she even functioned from there while in office.
On the night of April 23, 2017, a group of 10 men hacked a security guard, Om Bahadur, to death. They broke into the bungalow and allegedly looted the place. After police made arrests in the case, the trial began In October 2019 in the Nilgiris (district) sessions court.
The case took a surprising turn when a week after the break-in, on April 28, two of the main accused met with separate road accidents – C Kanagaraj, Jayalalithaa ‘s driver, died on the spot near Salem and K V Sayan escaped with serious injuries but his wife and daughter died on the spot while they were on their way to Kerala.
Meanwhile, on AIADMK leader Sellur Raju’s comment allegedly asking whether Army jawans fought at the border, Stalin dismissed the comment, saying “he is a clown; there is no need to magnify it.”Praising Operation Sindoor, Stalin said a rally was held in support of the armed forces under his leadership days ago in Chennai.
A Coimbatore court on Tuesday sentenced nine men to life imprisonment until death after finding them guilty of gang rape, filming sexual crimes, and exhorting multiple women survivors.
Eight women testified from Pollachi, about 44 km from Coimbatore, a small scenic town where the crime happened between 2016 and 2018 and came to light a year later and terrified the state when investigation revealed an organised racket of sexual crimes and extortion which also attained political overtones.
