Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary and Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency candidate Vaiko, along with his party cadre, squatted on the Virudhunagar-Aruppukottai road condemning the “unruly” behaviour of a Sub-Inspector, who allegedly used “abusive” language against his party cadre on Monday.
The police said that a Static Surveillance team of Aruppukottai Assembly constituency, involved in vehicle check near Periyavallikulam, had intercepted the convoy of Mr. Vaiko who was proceeding towards Aruppukottai around 11 a.m.
After Mr. Vaiko got down from his vehicle, a Special Sub-Inspector of Police had asked a party cadre sitting in the car following Mr. Vaiko's vehicle to get down.
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“Our cadre was angered by the abusive words used by the police officer. We are ready to cooperate with the police, but it was unwarranted on part of the police to behave in an unruly manner,” Mr. Vaiko told
Finding fault with the police officer's tone and body language, Mr. Vaiko said that he and his cadre squatted on the road for a brief while to expose the behaviour of the police.
“I will be the last person to put any hindrance to the public and vehicle movement. But, it was only a token protest to highlight the police behaviour,” Mr. Vaiko said.
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Inspector of Police Annaraj intervened and pacified the protestors, following which Mr. Vaiko's convoy left the place after a brief protest which lasted for around 15 minutes.
MDMK former Virudhunagar MLA R. Varadarjan sought transfer of the police officer.
In a similar incident reported on March 28, Mr. Vaiko — who cooperated with the police officers for a vehicle check — wondered whether the police will show the same interest in checking Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's helicopter when she goes out on election campaign.
On Sunday evening, the supporters of Virudhunagar Lok Sabha Congress candidate B. Manicka Tagore objected to a flying squad, checking the vehicles on the candidate's election tour, stating that they were being targeted by the officials, at Gurayur. They picked up a quarrel with the Deputy Tahsildar of the squad when he refused to flash his identity card. The official later said that he did not have an identity card.