The Hindu : Front Page : Prime suspect in <I>Dinakaran </I>office attack case held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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Prime suspect in Dinakaran office attack case held

Special Correspondent

`Attack' Pandi confesses to spearheading the attack

IN JUDICIAL CUSTODY: `Attack' Pandi being escorted out of the Melur court near Madurai on Tuesday. — Photo: Special Arrangement

MADURAI: The prime suspect in the May 9 attack on the Dinakaran newspaper office here was arrested on Tuesday.

A special team nabbed P. Pandi alias `Attack' Pandi (30) at Alagarkoil near here this morning. He was produced in a magistrate court at Melur and remanded to judicial custody.

According to police sources, Pandi led the attack on the building that houses the offices of Dinakaran, Sun TV and Tamil Murasu. Breaking a police cordon, the accused barged into the building on the Madurai-Melur national highway and hurled petrol bombs.

Three employees, including two engineers, trapped inside the burning office died of asphyxia.

Besides the statement of eyewitnesses, the investigators took cues from photographs and video footage, showing the accused in action.

While six persons were arrested within 24 hours of the attack, five teams were formed to apprehend the main accused.

The police said `Attack' Pandi, as he is better known, was a history sheeter of the Keerathurai police station in Madurai city.

He was accused in many grave cases and convicted in an assault case in 1999. "Based on specific information, a team led by the Othakadai Inspector, R. Lakshmanan, cornered Pandi near the Alagarkoil bus stop.

He did not offer any resistance," Madurai Superintendent of Police T.S. Anbu told The Hindu .

According to police sources, Pandi confessed to the police that he had spearheaded the attack after the newspaper published results of a survey as to who would become the political successor of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi. Describing the survey as "fake," he told the police that it was intended to create "confusion" among party cadres.

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