Didn’t call for bandh in Coimbatore, Annamalai tells Madras HC

CHENNAI: A day after some BJP leaders gave a call for a day-long bandh in Coimbatore city on October 31 over the car cylinder explosion, the party’s state president K Annamalai on Friday told the Madras High Court that he neither gave the call for the bandh nor endorsed it.

Senior advocate RC Paul Kanagaraj, appearing for Annamalai (who was marked as the fifth respondent), made the submission before a bench of justices Paresh Upadhyay and D Bharatha Chakravarthy in a PIL filed against the bandh by VR Vengatesh, a Coimbatore-based businessman.

The counsel said the bandh call was given at a meeting attended by BJP’s national executive committee member CP Radhakrishnan and a few others and it is open to people to support or reject it. The petitioner’s counsel contended that the bandh was proposed to be organised without police permission. The bench directed the government to take appropriate action as per law if the bandh was organised.

‘It’s up to the public’ 
Annamalai’s counsel said the bandh call was given at a meeting attended by BJP’s national executive committee member CP Radhakrishnan and it is open to people to support or reject it