Police scuttling petrol bomb 'attack' probe: TN Raj Bhavan

The Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan on Thursday came down hard on the police, saying the latter did not register its complaint on the petrol bomb issue, 'diluted' the attack as mere vandalism, and alleged a fair probe was 'killed' even before it began.

The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhageam said the Wednesday incident was condemnable and asserted the government would never allow such untoward incidents as it would bring disrepute to the regime.

The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the matter.

"The police did not register Raj Bhavan complaint on attack. Suo motu diluted the attack as act of simple vandalism and in a hurry got arrested the accused and remanded (the accused) to jail at midnight waking up the magistrate and prevented detailed interrogation which could expose those behind attack."       

"Fair investigation is killed before it began," the TN Raj Bhavan said on X.

A 42 year-old man with many pending cases against him had hurled a Molotov cocktail, called petrol bomb in local parlance, in front of the Raj Bhavan's main gate in Chennai on Wednesday.

Slamming the state government, Union Minister of State L Murugan and BJP MLA and party's Mahila Morcha chief Vanathi Srinivasan demanded a probe by the NIA.

Srinivasan said the case should be handed over to the NIA or CBI since the Tamil Nadu police acted as per diktats of persons belonging to the ruling DMK.

Law Minister S Regupathy said the incident was condemnable and the government would never allow such untoward incidents to happen in Tamil Nadu as it would bring disrepute only to the government.

The minister said hence, the hurling of the bomb should be a 'conspiracy' by someone to bring a "bad name" to the government.

Stating there is also a talk that the accused is a "little mentally ill," he wondered how the government could be held responsible if some person with 'mental illness' threw a petrol bomb.

Only an investigation will reveal why the accused hurled the petrol bomb, he said.

The minister alleged that Governor RN Ravi incited 'hatred' against the DMK regime and he is campaigning like an opposition leader against the government.

The government does not stoke hatred against him and it is its responsibility to answer allegations levelled by him.

Accusations that there is no security to the Raj Bhavan is out-and-out wrong and the incident happened on the road, outside the premises of the governor's house. The Raj Bhavan is being provided with full security cover by the state police and the government would not make any mistakes in maintaining law and order, he asserted.

The ruling DMK has come under attack from the opposition AIADMK and BJP vis-a-vis law and order over the petrol bomb episode.