A 38-year-old man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly throwing petrol bombs at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai city, PTI reported.
The police said that the attacker, Vinodhan, threw three bombs to protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test, or NEET, The Indian Express reported.
The police also said that Vinodhan is a habitual offender and was named in multiple criminal cases in the past. “We are analysing the CCTV footage, as of now we can see only one person being involved in the incident, further inquiry is in the process,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Hari Kiran Prasad told the newspaper.
The Tamil Nadu government has opposed NEET saying that a common entrance test could harm the prospects of the state board students. To exempt the students from the test, it passed the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill in September.
However, Governor RN Ravi had returned the Bill to the Assembly for reconsideration on February 1. Ravi had said that the Bill was against the interest of students from rural areas and who are economically weaker.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led government then convened a special Assembly session to adopt the Bill again. On Tuesday, Speaker M Appavu announced that the resolution had been adopted unanimously. Before the voting, Bharatiya Janata Party members staged a walkout without raising any objections.
On Thursday, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai called for a probe by the National Investigation Agency into the matter of petrol bombs, ANI reported.
“Law and order deteriorating in our state,” Annamalai said. “We seek NIA investigation because we think there is a larger conspiracy behind this petrol bomb. This should come out.”
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