CHENNAI: Six members of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK) who were earlier arrested by the city police for hitting a 70-year-old temple priest and for cutting his ‘poonul’ (sacred white thread), were ordered to be detained under the Goondas Act on Friday. The orders were served to the six now in prison.
The six were reportedly involved in three such incidents across the city on April 20 and were later nabbed by police. In one incident in Mylapore, the gang targeted the temple priest Vishwanath (74) while he was walking along Madhava Perumal Koil Street, Mylapore and assaulted him. The gang also snapped his ‘poonul’ besides raising slogans hailing the rationalist leader Thanthai Periyar EV Ramasamy (addressed as Periyar who started the self-respect movement in the State). Meanwhile, police also reported two such incidents of Poonul tearing - one at Ice House and the other at Ashok Nagar.
Subsequently Nandakumar, Prabhakaran, Diwakar, Pradeep, Ravanan, and Arun Kumar, members of DVK, were booked. All the six were arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Police Commissioner S George ordered on Friday that the six be detained under Goondas Act following the recommendations from Mylapore police. Of the six booked under Goondas Act, Ravanan was earlier arrested in a ‘petrol bomb’ attack on the post offices in Mylapore and Mandaveli on October 29, 2014.