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Police failed to check violence: traders

— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

FALLOUT OF MURDER: Shops were forced to put up the shutters at Oulgaret on Tuesday.

PUDUCHERRY: Monday’s vandalism following the murder of Theisthan has showed the district administration and the police force in bad light.

Several traders feel that that the administration and the police failed to take enough steps to control the violence unleashed by the supporters of Theisthan.

Immediately after the news about the murder broke out, Theisthan’s supporters went around the town on two-wheelers and forced shopkeepers to down shutters. They damaged the windscreen of a car near his house at Reddiarpalayam, where he was murdered by a gang.

While taking the body to his village from the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Postgraduate Institute in the evening, the supporters damaged windscreens of three private vehicles and a government bus near the New Bus Stand. They also ransacked two shops on Bussy Street.

Traders said the violence took place in the presence of police personnel who were escorting the procession. “Most of the supporters were carrying sticks and stones. It was shameful on the administration’s part to be silent spectators when all such incidents happened, that too for the murder of a history-sheeter involved in about five cases,” said a shopkeeper on Bussy Street.

The road-users too were not spared when the procession was passing through the town. “We were told to park the two-wheelers on the roadside till the procession passed off. When I refused, they threatened me with dire consequences,” a government employee said.

The shopkeepers on Bussy Street, New Bus Stand, Indira Gandhi Statue, Nellithope, Reddiarpalayam, Villianur and 100 Feet Road had to keep the shutters down throughout the day. Businessmen at Reddiarpalayam complained that they were not allowed to function.

The police said that they had registered cases against several supporters of Theisthan for Monday’s violence and registered cases against five history-sheeters, including “Nollai” Bala, for their alleged involvement in the murder of Theisthan.

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