CHENNAI: Claiming government inaction over his daughter’s medical condition, a head constable staged a protest in front of the secretariat, and set a DMK flag ablaze. The policeman, identified as A Kothandapani (42), attached to the Otteri police station, was detained on Thursday.
A resident of the police quarters in Avadi, Kothandapani arrived at the secretariat alongside his 11-year-old daughter. While protesting, he pulled out a DMK party flag and set it on fire. The police personnel on duty took him into custody.
The protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations by Kothandapani since 2023. He alleged his daughter had undergone a medical procedure in 2021 at the Institute of Child Health, Egmore, and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. According to his claims, medical negligence during the treatment led to the amputation of her left leg and affected the movement of her other leg and left arm.
In a clip that has gone viral on social media, he is seen shouting, “Sir, remove your hand! Are you arresting me like a common criminal? The DMK government is the real criminal here!”
“There has been no solution for what happened to my daughter in 2021. I challenge the chief minister to face me directly! I challenge him to find just one person in any of the 234 constituencies who can say whatever happened to my child was not wrong,” he is heard saying in the video.