The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Dais catches fire, PMK volunteers protest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Dais catches fire, PMK volunteers protest

By Our Staff Reporter

ERODE, APRIL 10. A dais erected with thatches for a Pattali Makkal Katchi public meeting at Moolanure near Vellakoil in Kangeyam taluk caught fire midnight last night. Following the incident, tension prevailed in the area as party volunteers squatted on the Moolanure-Dharapuram main road, demanding arrest of the miscreants.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi Dharapuram unit had arranged for a public meeting on Saturday night at Moolanure. Party leaders, including the former Union Minister, Ponnusamy, were to address the meeting.

Suddenly at around 8.15 p.m., the thatched dais caught fire. Immediately, the Fire and Rescue Services personnel from Vellakoil doused it. Subsequently, the meeting was cancelled.

But party volunteers squatted on the Moolanure-Dharapuram main road, demanding the police to arrest the miscreants who burnt the dais. They also pelted stones on some buses, damaging two vehicles.

The police rushed to spot and pacified them. A huge police contingent was posted in the village.

Electrical short circuit

According to the police, the organisers arranged the meeting near a Vinayagar temple and the power supply was taken from the temple, by using only a wire and not a plug. This resulted in an electrical short circuit and the dais catching fire. The police ruled out any sabotage. They said the Tamilnadu Electricity Board personnel also visited the spot last midnight and examined the connection taken from the temple for the meeting.

Meanwhile, the former Union Minister, Ponnusamy, told presspersons at Moolanure last midnight that some miscreants hurled petrol bomb on the dais, which caused the damage.

However, the police categorically denied the charge.

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