At least ten Bramhin men were attacked in Chennai on Wednesday morning and their Janeu or ‘sacred threads’ were cut off. This incident is reported to have happened in Triplicane area in Chennai today. A group of eight men are believed to be behind the attacks.
Most of the people attacked were either bare-chested or they were returning from a nearby temple. As per a report in the Indian Express, the incident happened around 7 am within the limits of the Ice House police station. Police are now searching for the gang which carried out these attacks.
The bike-borne men also reportedly raised pro-Periyar slogans while cutting the sacred threads.
Chennai Police on a massive search for the eight member gang that cut off sacred threads of around 10 people today morning near Triplicane. Below is the pic of Two accused in the gang. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/wsu3v7BOcz
— Arun Janardhanan (@arunjei) March 7, 2018
A report in DT Next also claims that Police have already collected the CCTV footage from the neighbourhood and also identified the people involved in the act.
The incident comes after BJP leader H Raja‘s facebook post stirred a controversy in Tamil Nadu. Raja has posted about the Lenin statue being brought down in Tripura and said that tomorrow it might be the statues of EV Ramaswamy (Periyar).
Several Tamil politicians issued threats of outrage after the post and even petrol bombs were hurled at the BJP office in Coimbatore after the incident. A statue of Periyar was vandalised in Vellore yesterday.
Later, H Raja reportedly deleted his post saying it was done by an admin.
“Since I was travelling to Delhi, as soon as I landed, I instructed to remove the post and also I removed the admin. We have ideological differences with Periyar but we don’t believe in the desecration of statues. I don’t approve the violent incidents that happened on both the sides. And also I have no intention of insulting anyone’s feelings” he said according to a report in DT Next.
There have been several incidents of vandalising the statues across the country. Prime Minister Modi has reportedly spoken to the Home Minister and strongly condemned these incidents. BJP President Amit Shah has also issued a warning to his party workers to not be involved in any such incidents.
I have spoken to the party units in both Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Any person associated with the BJP found to be involved with destroying any statue will face severe action from the party.
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 7, 2018
The police in Triplicane area are currently trying to nab the men who cut off the sacred threads. Such incidents have also happened in Tamil Nadu earlier when in a series of incidents, sacred threads of three temple priests were cut off.
