Hours after the Chennai police denied that Brahmin men were attacked in Triplicane, a 60-year-old has given a complaint at the Ice House police station. Ramesh, who lives in the area has alleged that eight men on four bikes attacked him and snatched away his 'poonal' (ritual thread).
In addition to this, police sources told TNM that four of eight suspects in the case surrendered at the Royapettah police station. They reportedly belong to the Dravidar Vidudalai Kazhagam (DVK).
This incident, according to police sources, happened at 7.25 am. While it was denied officially, the search for the complainant was underway. After enquiring with members of the community, the police managed to track down Ramesh. Meanwhile, they had managed to get hold of CCTV footage from the area and zeroed in on eight suspects.
"This is definitely a fallout of the Periyar statue vandalism incident in Vellore," claimed a source in the police team looking into the case. "Ramesh doesn't know them nor has he seen them before. We used our own sources to track down the complainant," he added.
The police had earlier told TNM that the case could be made stronger only if the complainant came forward.
This incident is the latest in a series of attacks and acts of vandalism following a post on BJP National Secretary H Raja's verified Facebook Page. Referring to the statue of Lenin that was vandalised in Tripura by BJP supporters, the post had warned Dravidian parties that Periyar statues were next.
While H Raja may have distanced himself from the post, the damage has been already done. A statue of Periyar was vandalised in Vellore district, following which a BJP office was attacked with petrol bombs in Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, the police is yet to come on record about the complainant and the alleged surrender.