Chennai: Annamalai demands CBI probe in Tirupur clash

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 6 : Attacking the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, the Tamil Nadu chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) K Annamalai on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the Tirupur clash.
In a statement, the BJP state chief said, "DMK R S Bharathi is saying I am playing a double standards role. But DMK is not doing a double act, they can do even 20 different roles."
Referring to the alleged clash in Tirupur, the BJP state chief called the incident "unfortunate".
"When one unfortunate incident happened in Tirupur because of hate politics, why did the police not take action?"
Alleging a delay in the investigation, Annamalai demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
"Why was there a delay in the investigation? Do the police officials, DMK and Tamil Nadu CM have any link between that incident? CBI should take up that case and find out who delayed the investigation," he said.
He further asked in the statement, "Why DGP didn't inspect Thirupur following the specific incident? What was Intelligence doing at Thirupur?"
Annamalai said that BJP would always encourage national integrity and harmony without any separation.
A statewide panic was created among migrant workers, working in Tamil Nadu, after several purported videos, showing attacks on migrant workers, circulated on social media.
The panic was triggered after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday, raised concerns and took note of the purported videos of "attacks".
The panic affected the industries in Tamil Nadu, which rely on migrant workers, badly as many workers stayed off work.
Taking cognizance of the panic, Tamil Nadu's Director General of Police Sylendra Babu released a statement, saying that the video doing rounds of social media was "false" and "mischievous".
"Somebody in Bihar posted false and mischievous videos saying that migrant workers were attacked in Tamil Nadu. Two videos were posted. Both are false as these incidents happened at an earlier date in Tiruppur and Coimbatore. One was a clash between two groups of migrant workers from Bihar while another was from a clash between two local residents in Coimbatore," the top cop said.
In January, a video went viral, in which a group of people was seen fighting. The incident happened on January 14 but the video went viral on January 26 claiming that Tamil workers are being attacked by migrant labourers.
Following that, many social media posts claimed those videos as a clash between migrant labourers and Tamil workers.
Following the escalation of the issue, on January 27, Tirupur Police's official release mentioned, "While no one has lodged a complaint with Police. We have started a detailed inquiry into the incident and appropriate action will be taken against the people involved in the clash".
Meanwhile, on January 30 another official release from Tirupur Police mentioned reads, "Two people were arrested in connection with the January 14 incident following the viral video and they have been sent to judicial custody. Teams have been formed to arrest more people on this incident".
Tirupur police also warned of action against fake and rumours being spread on social media on that issue.