Anna Univ sexual assault case: AIADMK puts up 'Who is that sir?' posters across Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: On Sunday, posters featuring AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, asking ‘Who is that Sir?’ alongside the hashtag 'Save Our Daughters’, appeared all over Chennai and various other parts of the State.

The posters surfaced a day before the party's State-wide protest, on December 30, against the Anna University student sexual assault case, which sent shockwaves. The protest aimed to mount pressure on the DMK government and to question its credibility in conducting a fair investigation.

On December 23, an engineering student was sexually assaulted at the Anna University campus in Guindy. Hours later, she filed a complaint and the accused, Gnanasekaran from Kottur, was arrested. But that did not did not bring a closure to the incident, as the opposition alleged that the accused was a DMK man – a charge that the ruling party has vehemently denied – and that one more person, with whom Gnanasekaran spoke over the phone, was involved in the incident. However, the police have maintained that the accused was only pretending to make the call as part of his plan to intimidate the woman.

Meanwhile, AIADMK chief Palaniswami charged that the present dispensation and the police are trying to cover up the case and demanded a CBI probe into the assault case to ensure a free and impartial inquiry.

According to senior AIADMK members, the party has identified resources in its IT and legal wings to further the campaign until the 2026 Assembly elections. The AIADMK, which has already filed a public interest litigation, is also exploring additional legal avenues to intervene, allowing the opposition to apply further pressure on the ruling party, said an AIADMK senior leader.

The State-wide poster campaign by the IT wing is intended to intensify the party's multi-pronged attack on its arch-rivals while setting the tone for their campaign ahead of the crucial assembly elections, explained a senior IT wing functionary. He added that this was a way of ‘returning the favour’ to the DMK, which had targeted the then AIADMK government over the 2019 Pollachi sexual assault case.

"Even now, the DMK and its leaders are attempting to deflect attention from the Anna University case by bringing up the Pollachi case. We will not allow this to continue," he said and continued that many more such campaigns would be taken up on different platforms, including social media, and through posters to further strengthen the public perception that DMK is incapable of handling L&O.

Meanwhile, a former MLA and advocate pointed out that the bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice V Lakshminarayan had expressed strong disapproval over the leak of the FIR and the way it was drafted, which appeared to blame the victim.

"As time passes, the DMK government will face increasing pressure from the High Court over this case, and it will be extensively publicised through our IT wing. Our leader has made this direction clear, " added another functionary, who has been actively involved in the campaign. He noted that the party would go all-out to "unmask the Stalin government's ineffective police department" and its lethargic approach to handling sensitive cases.

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(With online desk inputs)