Madurai: The AIADMK has announced it would hold a protest here on Monday against its interim general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) being booked in an FIR registered over an incident in which a man was beaten up by party workers in the Airport premises on Sunday.
The man shouted slogans against EPS when the latter was travelling in an airport bus towards the exit gate after he arrived here from Chennai on March 11. The man who was a co-passenger of Palaniswami in that bus resorted to sloganeering against the AIADMK leader.
He also filmed his sneers he was lobbing at the former Chief Minister and went live in Facebook live broadcast before being removed by the party workers. The victim who was attacked by the partymen was identified as Rajeswaran. He questioned Palaniswami as to how he can betray 'Chinnamma', a moniker used to identify VK Sasikala who was convicted in a disproportionate assets case along with her friend and late CM J Jayalalithaa.
A police officer who was escort duty to Palaniswami attempted to turn off Rajeswaran's phone while Palaniswami stoodby not reacting to the questions. After he got down from the bus, Rajeswaran was pulled away by the AIADMK workers who gave him a sound thrashing.
Based on Rajeswaran's complaint, the police have registered a case against the AIADMK leader and his partymen. A counter complaint too was received and based on which Rajeswaran has been booked. A senior police officer said both sides have been provided FIR copies related to the incident.
Former Minister Sellur K Raju said the DMK regime had deliberately added Palaniswami's name in the FIR and claimed the case was a foisted one. He claimed that the 'injustice' has outraged the party workers and urged the police to immediately remove the name of the former CM from the case.
"The government should have apologised to the Leader of Opposition for the incident. Instead, the police have added the AIADMK leader's name in the FIR to settle political scores. This shows the extent of political vendetta this government has," the AIADMK leader said. He warned that a massive protest would be staged to condemn the government for foisting the case.
