Doubts raised over attack' on Raj Bhavan

Chennai: The State government refuted the entire set of charges levelled by the deputy secretary to the State Governor and Comptroller at Raj Bhavan, T Sengottaiyan, in his complaint to the Chennai Police Commissioner with regard to alleged lapses in security to Governor R N Ravi while Law Minister S Regupathy said that the lawyer of Karukka Vinod, caught while hurling a Molotov cocktail near the Raj Bhavan gate on Wednesday, was a BJP functionary.

In his message on X, Regupathy said doubts were being raised because the BJP lawyer had bailed out Vinod from police custody when he was earlier arrested for throwing a similar petrol bomb at the BJP State headquarters, prompting other X users to come out with evidence on the lawyer's association with Vinod.

For those who expressed suspicion over the authenticity of the Minister’s message, they reproduced a copy of a BJP poster mentioning the lawyer Muthu Selvakumar as the Tiruvarur district secretary of the party lawyer’s wing and also uploaded a copy of the affidavit filed by him in court to bail out Vinod.

The State government, in its statement, averred that adequate protection was being given to Raj Bhavan and the Governor continuously and said the 42-year-old Vinod was caught 30 metres away from the main gate of Raj Bhavan when he hurled the incendiary device and denied that he had tried to storm in and was stopped by the sentry, as claimed in the complaint by Sengottaiyan on Wednesday night.

Denying Raj Bhavan's claim that two Molotov cocktails were hurled and that they exploded,  causing damages, an official press release clarified that the habitual offender was caught 30 metres away from the main gate and that the petrol bomb had not exploded.

The government said the culprit, as documented in the CCTV recordings, was walking on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road as any other pedestrian, carrying four bottles filled with petrol, and suddenly tried to throw the Molotov Cocktail towards the Raj Bhavan. He was caught immediately.

The culprit had earlier tried to throw petrol bombs at the Teynampet police station in July, 2017, with his associates and had thrown a similar device at a wine shop in South Boag Road in 201, the statement said.

The charge that sticks and stones were thrown at the Governor’s convoy at Mayiladuthurai was also vehemently denied by the Government which said that the sticks were thrown on the road after the convoy had passed by.

Stating that the allegation that no action was taken by the police following the incident, the government said that 73 persons were arrested after a case was filed at the Mayiladuthurai police station. Further investigation was being carried out, it said.