Tension prevailed at the Raj Nivas on Tuesday after a group of persons suddenly broke the barricades and staged a protest in front of the main gate seeking action against the security officer of Home Minister A. Namassivayam who had allegedly pushed Chief Minister N. Rangasamy during a function last week.
Visuals that emerged from a video of a temple car festival at Villianur, showed the security officer physically making way for Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to reach the place where Chief Minister was standing to pull the temple car.
The Chief Minister was seen leaning back when the security officer cleared the way for the Lt. Governor.
After the video began making the rounds on social media, secretary of the ruling All India N. R. Congress, N.S. J. Jayabal, had on Monday released a statement that the incident was blown out of proportion and visuals were completely misunderstood.
On Tuesday around 11 a.m., a group of people, mostly contract workers in the Public Works Department, suddenly descended near the Legislative Assembly and took out a march to the Raj Nivas. They broke the barricade and rushed towards the main gate and started raising slogans demanding action against the security officer. They also wanted an audience with the Lt. Governor
As the Lt Governor was away, there were only two police constables posted outside the main gate. They tried to prevent the protesters from raising slogans standing in front of the gate. While the sloganeering went on for a few minutes, a police team led by Grand Bazaar Inspector Kannan reached the spot and physically removed the protesters. They were pushed out of the barricaded place.
Once outside the barricade, the protesters pushed against the police cordon, and in the melee, a few of them fell to the ground.
Superintendent of Police, Vamseedhara Reddy Datla, reached the spot and allowed two members of the group to meet the Lt Governor’s Secretary to submit a memorandum on the issue.
Later, 21 of the protesters were arrested after a case was registered. The case has been registered under Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 448 (punishment for trespass), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 353 (punishment for preventing a public servant from discharging duty) of the Indian Penal Code.
Officer transferred
Later in the day, Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) N. Ravikumar issued a release announcing the transfer of security officer, K. Rajasekhar, to Pondicherry Armed Police.
The release said the security officer of a protectee was found “wanting in observing the necessary protocol.”
“The Lt. Governor has taken a very serious view of the conduct of the officer and directed the department to inquire into the incident. As per the directions of the Lt. Governor, the department took a serious note of the incident and transferred the officer,” Mr. Ravikumar said.
Protesters released
All the 21 accused arrested in the case have been released on station bail as the police felt that there would not be any further agitation on the issue following the transfer of the SO. They were released at around 10 p.m., said a police officer.
