C Ve Shanmugam attempts to bury truth by hurling slander: CPM

CHENNAI: A day after AIADMK organising secretary C Ve Shanmugam accused CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan of being a mouthpiece to the ruling DMK, the Marxist party on Saturday said that the former minister’s statement is nothing more than a petty attempt to bury the truth by hurling slander.

Former law minister Shanmugam has furiously reacted to Balakrishnan’s demand for probing the role of former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who held the home portfolio, and Vedanta which owned the Sterlite for their role in the police firing and killing of 14 anti-Sterlite protestors in Tuticorin.

“CPM never makes any charge or insists on something without evidence. We are urging that the former Chief Minister should be brought into the ring of inquiry on the basis of Justice Aruna Jagatheesan's commission report. The commission was appointed by the previous AIADMK government,” Balakrishnan said in a statement.

He pointed to the commission’s report which rejected Palaniswami’s claim that he came to know about the police firing only through the media reports.

“The then chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, DGP K Rajendran and Intelligence IG KN Sathiyamurthy gave minute-by-minute updates to the chief minister on the Tuticorin violence,” he quoted the report. He said that his party seeks action against all responsible, including the former chief minister, for the killing of innocent people in the police firing by the filing of the case. “These actions should serve as a lesson to prevent the state terror from happening anywhere in the future,” he noted.A day after AIADMK organising secretary C Ve Shanmugam accused CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan of being a mouthpiece to the ruling DMK, the Marxist party on Saturday said that the former minister’s statement is nothing more than a petty attempt to bury the truth by hurling slander.

Former law minister Shanmugam has furiously reacted to Balakrishnan’s demand for probing the role of former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who held the home portfolio, and Vedanta which owned the Sterlite for their role in the police firing and killing of 14 anti-Sterlite protestors in Tuticorin.

“CPM never makes any charge or insists on something without evidence. We are urging that the former Chief Minister should be brought into the ring of inquiry on the basis of Justice Aruna Jagatheesan's commission report. The commission was appointed by the previous AIADMK government,” Balakrishnan said in a statement.

He pointed to the commission’s report which rejected Palaniswami’s claim that he came to know about the police firing only through the media reports.

“The then chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, DGP K Rajendran and Intelligence IG KN Sathiyamurthy gave minute-by-minute updates to the chief minister on the Tuticorin violence,” he quoted the report. He said that his party seeks action against all responsible, including the former chief minister, for the killing of innocent people in the police firing by the filing of the case. “These actions should serve as a lesson to prevent the state terror from happening anywhere in the future,” he noted.