Anna University case: Palaniswami accuses DMK govt. of attempting to ‘shield someone’

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday (December 31, 2024) assailed the DMK government for its alleged attempts to “shield someone” from getting booked in the case regarding the sexual assault of a girl student on the campus of Anna University last week. 

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday (December 31, 2024) assailed the DMK government for its alleged attempts to “shield someone” from getting booked in the case regarding the sexual assault of a girl student on the campus of Anna University last week. 

“Why should Ministers for Law, Higher Education, and Social Welfare get all worked up? Whom are they trying to protect? There is a suspicion that someone who is close to them is involved in this matter,” Mr. Palaniswami told reporters at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai. 

Contrasting the DMK regime’s approach with that of his government towards cases of sexual assault on women, the Leader of Opposition recalled that when the Pollachi sexual assault and blackmail case surfaced, he got it transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The present regime, however, had challenged the Madras High Court’s order of handing over the investigation in a POCSO case, concerning a girl in Anna Nagar, from the Anna Nagar All Women Police Station in Chennai to the CBI. The apex court stayed the High Court’s order in November this year.

“Under this regime, there is no security for women and girl students. There is no security for people of the State,” the AIADMK general secretary alleged, adding that he wished 2025 to be a year of security for women.

Referring to the purported complaint given by the survivor in the Anna University case, Mr. Palaniswami contended that it was based on that complaint that his party had been raising the question: “Who is that sir?” He criticised the DMK government for filing a case against his party colleagues for staging a stir at a shopping mall on Sunday (December 29, 2024) and demanded the withdrawal of the case.

Pointing out that Anna University’s Vice Chancellor had not yet been appointed, Mr. Palaniswami said the present government had been operating like “a vehicle without any brake system.”