Chennai: A Molotov cocktail (a lit bottle filled with petrol and wick) was hurled outside the main gate of the Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan on Wednesday late afternoon. Police said no one was injured in the incident as the ‘bomb’ failed to ‘explode’.
Police arrested the man who had lobbed the crude bomb and claimed he was a repeat offender with a history of involvement in petrol bomb attacks in Chennai.
The main entrance of the Raj Bhavan on Sardar Patel Road in Guindy, where Governor R N Ravi has his office cum residence, is usually heavily barricaded and guarded by a strong posse of police personnel. The heightened security has been in place there for a few years now ever since political protests were witnessed against the occupant of the serene campus.
According to police, the accused Karuka Vinod has been arrested and remanded in custody. There were reports claiming that he had raised slogans against the Governor and sought abolition of the NEET. This could not be independently verified.
Accused was earlier held for hurling petrol bombs at police station
The accused Vinod was previously arrested during the erstwhile AIADMK regime on charges of hurling petrol bombs at the Teynampet Police Station in Chennai. Last year, after a petrol bomb was hurled at the State BJP headquarters, police arrested Vinod in connection with the incident as well. Police said he had come out of jail only three days ago. A senior officer claimed Vinod was in an inebriated state when he was caught.
Law and order deteriorating in Tamil Nadu: AIADMK
Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said the incident highlighted the breakdown of law and order in Tamil Nadu. “The intelligence and police machinery have broken down. Police are saying the accused was released from jail recently, this makes one wonder if this conspiracy was hatched in the prison,” he said.
State BJP president K Annamalai said, “While DMK is busy diverting the attention of people to insignificant matters of interest, criminals have taken the streets....These continuous attacks only leave one to think that the DMK government is sponsoring these attacks. Chief Minister M K Stalin will now be preparing for the next diversion, as he always does.”
