Condemning Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for converting the efficient state police into a puppet of the AIADMK for personal political gains, Stalin said the ruling party was a bane not only to economic and industrial growth, but also to people’s safety.

Describing the government as one which had given “statewide permit” for “rowdy raj”, Stalin said in a statement that the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has belied the Chief Minister’s tall claims about the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu.

Drawing public attention to the state registering 4.2 lakh and 4.9 lakh cases under IPC and special laws in 2017 and 2018, and murder cases increasing by 11.69 per cent and 47.62 per cent respectively in Chennai and Coimbatore, Stalin said that a quick glance of the NCRB report of the first two years of Edappadi Palaniswami’s stint as Chief Minister would reveal his miserable failure on the law and order front.

Stalin also alleged that the crime against women have increased by 40.79 per cent and 18.54 per cent in Coimbatore and Chennai respectively. Remarking that only achievement of Palaniswami’s regime was making Coimbatore and Chennai unsafe for women, the DMK president said the struggle of the government in even preventing crime against children was evident from NCRB statistics, which revealed that crime against children increased by 17.74 per cent. That women and children were living in the grip of fear was obvious from Chennai recording a 211.24 per cent rise in crime against children, Stalin said.

He also accused the CM of tampering data pertaining to murders in the policy note of the Home Department. The number of murders presented to NCRB for 2018 was 1,569, but the policy note tabled in the Assembly puts it at 1,488, revealing a cover up of 81 murders. This was the same way the government had covered up coronavirus deaths, Stalin added.