NEW DELHI, Oct 25: A drunk middle-aged man, a history-sheeter, hurled a petrol bomb aimed at the high-security main gate of the Raj-Bhavan in Chennai, the official residence of the Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi. He was immediately overpowered by the police on duty at the gate and placed him under arrest.
The police said at around 3 p.m., a person who walked up from Sardar Patel Road and stood near the Highway Research station, lit a wick on a bottle filled with petrol and threw targetting the main gate of Raj Bhavan. It stopped far short of the gate and landed on the road near the iron barricade before the main gate.
Additional Commissioner of Police, South, Prem Anand Sinha said, “Then, police personnel who were on bandobust duty near the gate quickly surrounded him. Since the bottle landed before the barricade near the maingate of Raj Bhavan, no one was injured and there were no damage to property either.”
Sinha said the man was identified as Vinodh alias ‘Karukka’ Vinodh, 42, of S.M. Nagar, Nandanam. In 2022, he had pelted petrol bombs at the BJP party office and was also involved in a similar offence at Teynampet police station in 2017. He was also involved in hurling a petrol bomb at a Tasmac outlet in 2017. Recently, he had come out from jail on bail. He had 14 criminal cases against him for offences, including attempt to murder.
Mr. Sinha said, “In the morning, he consumed liquor and during the time he was outside the Raj Bhavan, he was in an inebriated condition. He was secured safely and four bottles were seized from him, after which he was taken to the police station. Further interrogation is on.” He also said the police was waiting for the arrested man to come out of liquor influence and become sober to interrogate him on the motive behind hurling the petrol bomb at the Raj-Bhavan gate.
However, political accusations have started from the opposition BJP and the AIADMK claiming that the incident reflected the deteriorating law and order situation in Tamil Nadu under the DMK dispensation which was busy diverting people’s attention to non-issues to hide its failure to run the government.
(Manas Dasgupta)