Referring to Annamalai as 'former Karnataka police officer', TN police issues statement saying he is spreading 'exaggerated false information'. Annamalai accuses police top brass of being 'extensions of DMK'
Tamil Nadu police accused state BJP chief K Annamalai of spreading "exaggerated false information" over the Coimbatore blast case
In the wake of the political controversy around the Coimbatore car blast case — in which 29-year-old Jamesha Mubin was killed after an LPG cylinder inside his car exploded on 23 October near the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam area — the Tamil Nadu police on Saturday, 29 October, issued a statement accusing Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who is also a former IPS officer from Karnataka, of continuously trying to defame the state police force and divert the investigation in the case.
Ever since the blast was reported, Annamalai has been exerting pressure on the government, blaming it for alleged intelligence failure and questioning Chief Minister MK Stalin and the DMK government as to why they were downplaying the explosion as a “cylinder blast” instead of calling it an act of terror. He has also been criticising the government claiming that the decision to transfer the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was delayed.
On Saturday, Annamalai raised pointed questions to the Tamil Nadu police asking them why they hadn’t acted effectively on an intelligence alert issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 18 October warning of potential attacks.
However, hours after Annamalai’s press briefing, a statement was issued from the Tamil Nadu police headquarters terming the charges levelled by Annamalai as “absurd”.
“The alert from the MHA was a routine alert sent to all states and Union territories. Coimbatore was not mentioned specifically anywhere in the alert. He (Annamalai) is trying to create a false impression that the police did not act on specific information about the incident. …The alert from MHA was immediately sent to all city and district police officers. The police would have arrested the suspects immediately if there was a specific alert about a blast in Coimbatore as Annamalai claims,” the statement read.
Picture from the spot where Jameesha Mubin’s car exploded in Coimbatore
It further said: “We request the former Karnataka police officer not to defame the Tamil Nadu police by spreading exaggerated false information.”
A copy of the MHA alert — which was sent to Chief Secretaries of all states and administrators of Union territories — accessed by South First showed that among other directions, it asked the state governments of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu to “review and provide adequate security to those Hindu leaders who were likely to face attacks from the Popular Front of India and its affiliates” in view of the recent ban imposed on these Muslim organisations. There was no specific mention of Coimbatore.
As for the criticism that the decision to transfer the investigation in the case to the NIA was delayed, which was also raised by Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on 28 October, the TN police stated that due process was followed and there was no question of any delay.
The statement said: “In the Coimbatore case, the procedure was followed thoroughly, and without any delay, the state government recommended to transfer the investigation to the NIA. Also, in some important cases, the Union home ministry will suo motu transfer the case to NIA. But in the case of Coimbatore incident, it was the state government that recommended the transfer of the case to NIA even before the Union government released an order.”
The police added that when an incident such as the Coimbatore car blast is reported, it is initially the local police that launch an investigation into it. The case is transferred to the NIA based on the nature and magnitude of the case. The statement further pointed out that in some cases, the investigation is either handed over to the NIA months after the incident or the documents are handed over to them by some states after several months.
In the case of the Coimbatore car blast, the incident was reported on 23 October and on 26 October, it was decided in a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin to recommend the transfer of the probe to the NIA.
CM MK Stalin chaired a high-level meeting over the Coimbatore car blast case on 26 October
Immediately after the Tamil Nadu police put out the statement against Annamalai for spreading “false information”, the state BJP chief took to Twitter and accused the top brass of the police — Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) (Intelligence) Davidson Devasirvatham — of being “extensions of the DMK”.
While saying that he would soon put out a point-by-point rebuttal over the statement issued by the police department over the Coimbatore blast case, Annamalai added that it was “sad to see the level of politicisation in the higher ranks of the police force”.
“Our complaint was especially against the two top officers for failing their basic duties, and no wonder they gave a press release in the name of the TN police force to protect themselves. Instead of blaming us for bringing down the morale of the force, they should do a proper soul-searching to see where the failure happened,” Annamalai charged.
A point-by-point rebuttal will be given to the press statement of @tnpoliceoffl soon.
With the highest respect to the hardworking brothers & sisters of TN Police, the DGP and ADGP (Int) of our state police behaves like an extension of the @arivalayam office. (1/3)
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) October 29, 2022
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