EPS feigned ignorance of firing, says panel

CHENNAI: The Aruna Jagadeesan Commission, in its report, has opined that the statement of former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thoothukudi police firing was incorrect or inaccurate.

“The then Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, the then DGP K Rajendran and the then Intelligence IG KN Sathyamurthy have been updating Palaniswami with minute to minute development in Thoothukudi at that,” the report observed.

After the police firing, when reporters questioned Palaniswami about the brutality of the incident, the former CM replied that “he came to know about the shooting only through the media.” There were several criticisms after the comments that how could a Chief Minister not know about such an incident and was also called insensitive.

The Commission, through its report, has now proven that Palaniswami has in fact ‘lied’ about the incident.