Continuing to keep the heat on the DMK government of MK Stalin over the sexual assault of a girl student in the prestigious Anna University, in the heart of Chennai, the BJP on Tuesday announced a padayatra from Madurai to press for justice for the victim.
“Condemning the atrocity meted out to the girl student and the DMK government attempting to prevent the full truth from coming out because the offender belongs to the DMK, the BJP Mahila Morcha will launch a padayatra from Madurai to Chennai on January 3,” party state president K Annamalai said in a post on ‘X’. The yatra would be led by state BJP mahila morcha President Umarathi and on its conclusion, a memorandum will be submitted to the Governor, he added.
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Annamalai’s novel protest of flogging himself six times in front of his house last week to condemn the incident and deciding not to wear footwear till the DMK is ousted from power has only invited ridicule, flooding social media with memes.
Earlier on Monday, close on the heels of actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) President Vijay meeting Governor RN Ravi, Annamalai arrived at the Raj Bhavan, urging him to ensure a fair and impartial investigation into the sexual assault case.
Governor Ravi is also the Chancellor of Anna University, a highly reputed institution for technical education.
The victim, a second year student of Mechanical Engineering, was sexually assaulted on the night of December 23 after her boyfriend was thrashed and chased away. On her complaint, police arrested the accused, Gnanasekaran (37), running a roadside biriyani shop near the varsity. His third wife is a conservancy worker in the varsity. During initial inquiry, the police are said to have found a cache of videos on unnatural sex.
The Madras High Court, which entrusted the investigation to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of three women IPS officers, has ordered Rs 25 lakh compensation to the victim and also directed the university to provide free education and boarding. The court also rapped the police for the way the FIR was written, in a tone of blaming the victim and revealing the identity as well as family details. Further, it pulled up the city police for the FIR being leaked in the public domain.
The opposition AIADMK and the BJP as well as the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of Seeman have been relentless in cornering the ruling DMK on the issue. Seeman was detained along with his supporters while holding a protest in Chennai earlier in the day. AIADMK IT Wing members were also detained and cases registered against them for staging a protest demonstration in the city. This protest was in continuation of the AIADMK’s state wide agitation.
The AIADMK has christened the campaign “Who is that Sir” as the rape survivor had mentioned in her police complaint that the accused received a call whom he addressed as sir. During the series of protests, party workers are holding placards ‘Who is that Sir?’
Countering the opposition onslaught, senior DMK Minister S Regupathy blamed them of playing cheap politics. “We will ensure speedy justice and there is no need for us to protect anyone. Tamil Nadu is the safest place for women. Even the NIC had clarified that the FIR was not leaked and that there was a technical issue that enabled some people to download it. It has been fixed shortly,” he told the media, adding that it is to the credit of the DMK government that the victim had approached the police with confidence that she will get Justice. “EPS (AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami) is unable to digest the fact that the accused had been arrested and remanded. Annamalai is trying to gain political mileage out of a tragic incident,” he charged.
