COIMBATORE:Minister for Electricity and Excise V Senthil Balaji said BJP State president K Annamalai should be investigated for disclosing details related to the car blast in Coimbatore and questioned the need for Annamalai to disclose the details before police issued a statement.
He was speaking to reporters after presiding over a review meeting with Collector GS Sameeran, Commissioner of Police V Balakrishnan and others on Thursday.
“Police traced the identity of the deceased in 12 hours of the blast and arrested five persons within 24 hours. The blast did not have an adverse impact on the public celebrating Deepavali, thanks to the measures taken by police. But the BJP’s state president has been speaking about the case without any truth to trigger panic for political gains. He should be investigated by NIA to know how he got the details,” he said.
Explaining why the State government recommended transferring the probe to NIA, he said, “As the incident may have links that go beyond TN’s border, the case was transferred to NIA. But, persons from BJP claim they are the reason behind the decision. The party is politicising in the issue by unnecessarily calling for a bandh with an eye on Lok Sabha elections in 2024.”
‘Don’t support bandh’
Later in the day, Senthil Balaji participated in an all-party meeting in which functionaries of DMK, Congress, CPM, CPI, VCK, MDMK, IUML and MNJK took part. He said stringent action would be initiated against anyone who forces shops to close or threatens public on October 31. Further, he appealed to people of Coimbatore to not support bandh. Meanwhile, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan in Coimbatore on Thursday described the bandh as unnecessary. NTK opposed the handover of the case to NIA and said Muslims shouldn’t be shown in poor light