Lorry rams into Periyar statue in Vellore, DMK members stage protest
The lorry, on its way to Pune, while taking reverse had hit onto the Periyar statue.
By : migrator
Update: 2022-01-20 09:16 GMT
Chennai
A 40-Year-old statue of Periyar was crashed on by a lorry totally damaging the statue beyond repair. Lorry driver Mahendra Sable (28) was arrested by the Vellore police.
The driver had reportedly changed his lorry tyres at a workshop in Puducherry's Nettapakkam and by mistake entered Kamarajar Salai en route to Pune. While he took reverse, he dashed into the statue as the road was narrow.
The DMK member who saw the statue in shambles started protesting on the spot before the driver was arrested.
The workers of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK)also were agitated over the incident. A K. Rajadas, a local DK leader, told IANS: "We don't think that these are freak accidents. For the past few weeks, the statues of Thanthai Periyar across Tamil Nadu are being damaged or desecrated and we feel that there is a concerted effort behind this to discredit him and his ideology which is directed against the upper class and for the downtrodden.
"We want a thorough investigation into the case to unearth whether any planning was done and if so who was behind this. We don't believe the police version and let a proper investigation be conducted and then let us see."
In a related development, Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) workers conducted a protest march towards the Villupuram police station. M . Ramakrishnan, president of TPDK while speaking to IANS said: "There are some ulterior motives behind the continues attacks on the statutes of Thanthai Periyar and it is a shame that these incidents are happening while a political party like DMK is in power in Tamil Nadu. Police have to act strongly and conduct an investigation without any bias and preconceptions."
(Inputs from IANS)
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