Four persons, attached to the Dravida Viduthalai Kazhagam, who confessed that they had snatched the sacred thread, and pulled the tuft, of an elderly man in Triplicane on Wednesday morning, surrendered before the Assistant Commissioner Royapettah later in the afternoon.
According to police, Ramesh, an eyewitness, had come to lodge a complaint in the Ice House police station on Wednesday afternoon. “I was riding my bike on Singarachari Street when I spotted an elderly person, falling down after his sacred thread was snatched by six men on three bikes,” he said.
He claimed that the gang later pulled his tuft and the elderly person was helpless. “The gang shouted Periyar vazhga ( long live Periyar) and sped away. All this happened hundred meters away from me. I tried to chase them, but they escaped through the narrow alleys,” he added.
Victim shaken by incident
Police claim that none of the other passersby tried to rescue the elderly person. “He (a Kannada Brahmin) was so shaken by the incident that he refused to lodge a complaint,” said a senior police officer.
Meanwhile some shop keepers on Singrachari Street said that they only heard about the incident and did not see anything. “There was some commotion and the police team came and interrogated many of us,” said the worker at a tea shop on the street.
However later in the evening, four persons — Ravanan (30), Umapathi (32), P.Prabhakaran (25), and S.Rajesh (24) from Dravida Viduthalai Kazhagam surrendered in front of Vinod Santharaman, assistant commissioner of police, Royapettah.
They have been booked under section 147 (punishment for rioting), 153 A (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 295 A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 506 (1) punishment for criminal intimidation.
The police are hunting for a few others who were involved in the incident. “There are previous cases of rioting against a few who surrendered today. We are investigating the case,” said a police officer.
