CHENNAI: A 26-year-old employee of a Tamil magazine set himself on fire inside the Shastri Bhavan compound on Haddows Road around 10.30 am on Thursday to draw world attention to the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. Muthukumar left a lengthy suicide note.
In his dying declaration at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, where he was admitted with 90 per cent burns, Muthukumar, who works for the magazine Penna Ne (Are you a woman), spoke highly of the ‘Tamil race’ and urged the doctors to convey his message to his ‘elder brothers’, Viduthali Chiruthaigal Katchi founder Thol Thirumavalavan and LTTE supremo V Prabakharan.
When asked why an educated person like him chose to do such a thing, he said that many people who were more intelligent than him were being killed in Sri Lanka.
In his four-page note, Muthukumar called himself a ‘journalist and assistant director’. He had worked for television production houses before joining Penna Ne as DTP operator two months back. His colleagues described him as a reserved and normal person.
His brother-in-law, Kakkaivelu, in whose house he had been staying, said: “He called me last night to say that he had some work early in the morning and he would not come home at night.”
Hailing from Tiruchendur, Muthukumar, a matriculate, fought with his father, who runs a scrap iron shop in Tambaram, and lived with his sister Tamilarasi in Kolathur.
MDMK general secretary, Vaiko said Muthukumar’s ‘sacrifice’ was reminiscent of LTTE cadres’ ‘sacrifice’ of biting into cyanide capsules.
Thirumavalavan warned the Centre that there would be more Muthukumars in Tamil Nadu if it failed to intervene and stop the war in Lanka.