Senior BJP leader H. Raja, who called on slain Hindu Munnani leader Sasikumar’s family on Tuesday, alleged that Bangladeshi infiltrators, who were in large numbers in Coimbatore, could be behind Sasikumar’s murder. Those infiltrators had joined hands with the local extremists to unleash the violence.
If the State Government was unable to crack the case soon, the BJP would not hesitate to seek National Investigative Agency’s probe, as it was not just a murder but an act of terrorism.
Mr. Raja also said that the violence in the funeral procession started only when stones were pelted from a religious establishment on the Mettupalayam Road and the police action appeared to be biased because they were targeting Hindu cadre who were part of the procession.
On Monday, the Union Minister Pon. Radhakrishnan who visited the family had expressed confidence in the police investigating Sasikumar murder case. “I’ve full faith that the police teams will crack the murder case,” he said.
But the police could have been proactive by anticipating assault on Hindu leaders as there had been quite a few incidents in the recent past.
The police in Coimbatore should have been all the more alert because the district had a history of communal tension, starting with the murderous assault on leader Veeraganesh in 1989 and the serial bomb blasts targeting senior leader L.K. Advani in 1998. If the police had restored the protection it had given Sasikumar, in anticipation of the trouble, the family and the Hindu fraternity would not have suffered such an irreparable loss. Now, the police should act quickly and arrest the real culprits and also their handlers.
Commenting on the violence that took place during the funeral procession on September 23 (Friday), Mr. Radhakrishnan said that at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital where the procession started and up to a point, there had been no trouble. Only when the procession reached a place of worship and a stone was reportedly flung from there, did the violence start. The police should have anticipated the trouble and avoided the confrontation, he said.
He added that the police should take action in such a way that such murders did not recur and provide protection for Hindu leaders as murderous assaults against them continued.
