BJP tells Tamil Nadu to junk police case against functionary who sought quality audit after laddu row

Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP on Wednesday demanded the DMK regime to withdraw a police case against its senior functionary who had sought quality audit of ghee supplied to the Palani Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple following the Tirupati laddu controversy.

Citing the arrest of Dindigul based AR Dairy's Rajasekaran in the Tirupati laddu adulteration case filed by the Special Investigation Team, BJP leader Narayanan Thirupathy said when the controversy broke last year, the party's industry wing vice-president Selvakumar had pointed out that Rajasekaran was a trustee of the Palani temple.

Selvakumar had alleged that the same firm that faced allegations in the laddu matter could have supplied ghee to the Palani temple as well and had hence batted for a quality audit there.

Narayanan said rather than finding out the truth, police slapped a case against Selvakumar on this issue and the party functionary and his family members were "harassed."

Further Narayanan claimed that a few weeks ago Rajasekaran had been dismissed by the DMK government from the Board of Trustees of the Palani temple.

Now that Rajasekaran had also been arrested in the Tirupati laddu matter, the Tamil Nadu government must take back the case against Selvakumar and give up "activities against freedom of expression."

"Action against Selvakumar confirms that the Dravidian model DMK government is a fascist government. The case against him must be withdrawn immediately. Otherwise, the court will make the Tamil Nadu government understand truth and justice."

It may be recalled that following the BJP functionary's safety audit demand the government had then clarified that state-run Aavin supplied ghee to the Palani temple. The government had also warned of legal action if rumours were spread about Palani panchamirtham.