An LPG tanker driver from Tiruchi district who was stripped and attacked in Karnataka a few days ago by a violent mob on the Cauvery issue is unable to return home.
Thirty-three-year-old T. Manivel, a resident of Kalpaarai village near Thathiengarpet, has been staying in Karnataka since September 12 in the damaged lorry parked on the campus of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited near Bengaluru. Videos of the attack on him after being almost stripped went viral in the social media.
Manivel left home early this month to drive the tanker lorry transporting LPG autogas from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Plant from the Mangaluru plant to Bengaluru. He left Mangaluru on September 10 and reached the outskirts of Bengaluru on September 12 when he had to bear the brunt of a mob’s fury.
“I alighted from the vehicle when the mob tore my shirt and pulled off the ‘lungi’ and made me stand in front of the vehicle’s number plate.”
Making a fervent plea to the Tamil Nadu government, Manivel says the incident had caused him severe mental agony and that the government should take steps for his return to Tiruchi district. He wants some arrangement to be made for his livelihood in Tamil Nadu as he doesn’t feel like driving in Karnataka again.
