Cops say Hindu outfit leaders may be under threat

chennaiCHENNAI: A few leaders of Hindu outfits in the state, including a woman BJP leader in Chennai, could be under threat from radical groups, police have said. Analysing the letter, in code, received at the Hindu Munnani headquarters in Chintadripet on Tuesday, sleuths of the special investigation division of CID wing suspect it is the handiwork of a new group.

A police officer said one of those in the ‘list’ mentioned in the letter was a woman whose name ends with ‘thi’ and this could be Vanathi, while the leader whose named ends in ‘ja’ in Sivaganga could refer to state BJP leader H Raja and the man in Thanjavur with a name ending in ‘m’ could be BJP’s Muruganantham.

The letter also mentioned threat to leaders in Chennai with names ending in ‘n’ and this created panic as several names of several leaders, including state RSS coordinator Rama Gopalan, the officer said. It was planned to provide a personal security officer to each of those named in the letter after a thorough investigation, he said.

A senior police officer said the letter also mentioned leaders and workers of Hindu outfits in Coimbatore, Trichy and Virudhunagar but the link was not clear, the officer said.

The group that purportedly sent the letter called itself ‘THAAN’. A police officer attached to the fundamentalist wing said several members of the Students Islamic Movement of India had, after the group was banned, moved to other radical organizations and some of them could have formed the group . Police believed that several active fundamentalists have regrouped into a new group called ‘THAAN’. Police personnel are trying to locate the active members of the association.

The letter, which ends with the phrase ‘Imma-Malai-Bros,’ claimed to have declared a ‘fatwa’ against those named. City police officers have been asked to collect the details of leaders of various Hindu groups living in areas under their jurisdiction.

Earlier, a personal security officer was provided for 82 leaders and activists of such groups in the city but the security was down-sized a few years ago.

Source: Times of India