Two cadres of the ruling DMK were arrested
late last night on charges of misbehaving with a woman cop during
a function in the city on the New Year day.
As the incident caused embarassment to the ruling party with the
opposition demanding their arrest, the DMK suspended them from
the party last night.
The duo, S.Praveen and C.Ekambaram, were arrested a couple of
hours they were temporarily suspended from the DMK for violating
party discipline and for acting in a manner that brought disrepute to
the party.
In a statement last night, DMK General Secretary Duraimurugan
announced that both of them were temporarily suspended from
the primary membership of the party.
The suspension comes in the wa,ke of Opposition parties, including
the AIADMK, BJP and the AMMK, strongly condemning the incident
and criticised the state government for not taking steps to arrest
them.
The police earlier claimed that the CCTV footages they had seen
showed it was an accidental body contact and not an act of sexual
harassment.
Police also said that the woman cop has withdrawn the complaint
last evening after the duo tendered an unconditional apology.
The policewoman was allegedly molested by the two DMK workers
during a public meeting organised to commemorate former DMK
Minister K Anbazhagan’s birth centenary on Sunday.
The incident happened in Chennai’s Virugambakkam with DMK
heavyweights including Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi Health Minister
Ma Subramanian and Legislator AMV Prabhakara Raja on stage
When other policemen on the spot reportedly found their collegaue
in tears, they surrounded the duo in order to arrest them. However,
they were prevented by the DMK cadres and were allowed to go
and no complaint was registered.
AIADMK Interim General Secretary Edappadi K.Palaniswami,
expelled AIADMK leader O.Panneerselvam and AMMK Founder
TTV Dhinakaran hit out at the state goverment and demanded
the immedate arrest of the duo.
BJP State President K Annamalai also condemned the incident.
“Disgraceful state of affairs in Tamil Nadu. Governance is in deep
slumber. Two DMK youth wing functionaries molested a police
constable on protection duty in a public meeting”, he tweeted.
However, with the Opposition making it a big issue and the Assembly
session set to commence from January 9, the DMK suspended the
duo following which they were arrested.
