The city police arrested a man for allegedly hurling petrol-filled bottles (having lit the wick of one bottle) at the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in T. Nagar early on Thursday.
The police said at 1.20 a.m, the accused, riding a bike, hurled the molotov cocktail at the ‘Kamalalayam’ on Vaidyaraman Street, which is guarded by the police round the clock. He hurled two more bottles. As the front was wide open, it hit a wall and a carpet that was laid on the floor. A portion of the carpet was burnt and damaged.
An Armed Reserved Guard, who was present, raised an alert. The biker fled the scene quickly before the other police nabbed him. At the time of occurrence, a few party workers were staying on the premises, the police said.
Karu Nagarajan, party general secretary, took up the matter with Commissioner of Police Shankar Jiwal. Senior police officers reached the spot. The police swung into action and after scrutinising the CCTV footage, traced the suspect in nearby area.
At 6 a.m, the accused, who was identified as M. Vinodh alias Karukka Vinodh, 38, was nabbed from his house in S.M. Nagar, Nandanam. He was found drunk and brought to Mambalam police station. During interrogation, he reportedly told the police that he did not like the stand of the BJP on NEET.
Mr. Jiwal said: "We got vital clues from the place of occurrence and the CCTV footage. Our personnel nabbed the accused quickly. Our initial investigation disclosed that he committed this not because of any religious or political intentions".
The police said the accused had the habit of interfering in public issues under influence of alcohol and has a mindset of indulging in similar offences.
The police said the accused has a history sheet in his name in Teynampet police station as he had 10 criminal cases, including four attempt to murder cases, against him. He was involved in hurling petrol filled bottles at Mambalam police station in 2015 demanding closure of a Tasmac outlet and also involved in throwing molotov cocktails at the Teynampet police station in 2015. He had been remanded in all these cases.
