Chennai: A man, claiming to be the head of a pro-Hindu outift, has owned up responsibility for the attack on the office of a Chennai-based Tamil news channel this morning, and surrendered to the police in Madurai. Jayam Pandian turned himself in, saying he headed an outfit called the Hindu Youth Sena and claimed that he was behind the attack, when two crude bombs were thrown at the office of Puthiya Thalaimurai channel.
The attack had come amid protests against Puthiya Thalaimurai by pro-Hindu organisations, after the channel had played clips of a show as a promo, on the relevance of the 'thali', or mangal sutra. The promos had invited the anger of pro-Hindu outfits, some of whom had protested. A cameraperson of the channel had also been roughed up by members of a pr-Hindu fringe outfit.
(Jayam Pandian, who surrended to the police in Madurai, claiming responsibility for the attack on the office of a news channel in Chennai.)
Four men on two motorcycles had hurled two crude bombs at the entrance of Puthiya Thalaimurai in Chennai's Ekkaduthangal area around 3 am this morning. There had been no damage and no injuries.
The attack saw a number of prominent Chennai-based journalists coming together to protest. "Its a threat to freedom of expression and law and order," said Bharathi Tamizhan, joint secretary of the Chennai Press Club, at the protest.
"Tamil Nadu is a well-policed state and the police have a lot of explaining to do," said RK Radhakrishnan, Senior Deputy Editor of Frontline, adding, "This has happened four days after the earlier attack on a cameraperson at the same place."
The two country bombs hurled at the Puthiya Thalaimurai office had bene packed in tiffin boxes. No damage has been reported. CCTV footage shows four men on two motorcycles throwing the crude bombs at the entrance to the office.
The channel is promoted by the same group that owns SRM University. SRM Group founder TR Parivendar Pachamuthu had launched a party, the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK, or Indian Democratic Party), which had been part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
However, New Generation Media Corporation, which runs the channel says it is an apolitical, professional media house, headed by P Sathyanarayanan, the younger son of Mr Parivendar.
The CEO RBU Shyam Kumar said, "This is disturbing. This could also disturb communal harmony. We condemn this."