The three-member national team deputed by the BJP high command to study the ‘serial killings’ of its leaders and those of other Hindu outfits, visited Salem and Vellore on Thursday and met the family members of the victims and party cadre.
BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, who was part of the team, told mediapersons in Salem that the team had discovered a ‘pattern’ in the killings. “They were shocking, unprovoked, premeditated uncivilised acts,” he said.
On the specific objective of the fact-finding mission and what aspects they were looking into, Javadekar said that the team met the victims’ relatives and family members, partymen and also members of Hindu organisations that had come under attack.
“A report would be submitted to the party high command on Monday. The issue would be brought to public knowledge and raised in Parliament,” he added.
Earlier, the team members, including Nirmala Seetharaman and Anand Kumar Hegde, met Hindu Munnani leader Ramagopalan at the RSS office. Later, they went to the office of Auditor V Ramesh at Maravaneri 2nd Cross.
While Javadekar and Hegde met the family of Ramesh, Nirmala Seetharaman closeted with the family members of N Sukumaran, Ramesh’s landlord.
However, the team members did not divulge any information elicited from the people whom they met.
The team met Ramesh’s mother in Sahadevapuram and also the family of Raja Rajeswari, who immolated herself on Sunday.
Later, the team left for Vellore, where they paid homage to the slain leader Vellaiyappan, who was hacked to death by a three-member gang opposite the Ramakrishna Mutt near Muthumandapam in Vellore on July 1. The team spent nearly 15 minutes at the spot. BJP State president Pon Radhakrishnan and senior party leader L Ganesan accompanied the team.
Earlier, the team visited the clinic and house of Dr Arvind Reddy, the then medical wing secretary of BJP, who was murdered by three persons last year in front of his clinic in Kosapettai. They also interacted with Reddy’s wife Dr Kavitha.
Later in the evening, the team took part in an hour-long meeting of the Vellore unit of BJP and Hindu Munnani in Vellore. “The team heard the views of the BJP and Hindu Munnani cadre about the murders. The team will meet senior police officers and possibly the Chief Secretary in Chennai on Friday,” Pon Radhakrishnan said.
Radhakrishnan said that he was satisfied with the action taken so far by the State government in the issue.