Do not attribute religious motives: Tamil Nadu police on murder of youth

Tamil Nadu Police on Wednesday clarified that the murder of a 23-year-old youth in Ramanathapuram district has no “religious angle” as it was the result of a fight between two groups, rejecting social media posts, including one by BJP leader H Raja, in this regard as “false” and “rumour.”

After Arun Prakash was murdered allegedly by members of another gang due to old enmity on August 31, social media was abuzz with claims that the murder was religiously motivated as two of the four suspects belonged to a different faith.

BJP leader H Raja, known for his penchant for controversies, took to Twitter on Tuesday to allege that Prakash was “murdered by 10 Muslim religious fanatics” in Ramanathapuram in southern Tamil Nadu.

Soon, Twitter was flooded with tweets attributing religious motives to the murder in the communally-sensitive district and leaders from various right-wing outfits circulating them on other social media platforms.

The police said Prakash’s murder was due to the previous enmity and they are investigating the incident.

“The police will do an impartial investigation and arrest all the suspects soon. Please do not believe rumours and fake news,” Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police (SP) Varun Kumar said.

The district police also put out a public notice asking people not to believe rumours and warned strict action against those spreading fake news.

“The incident that took place in Vasantham Nagar in Ramanathapuram is a result of personal enmity between two groups. Some people are trying to give the incident a religious colour. People involved in this crime belong to different religious and there is no issue regarding any religion in this case. Do not believe those spreading rumours,” the public note said.

It further added that the police have formed three special teams to nab the culprits and get to the bottom of the incident.

This is not the first time that the BJP has tried to bring in the religious angle to a murder. It had alleged ‘love jihad’ angle to the murder of party functionary Vijaya Raghu in January this year. However, the police clarified that the motive behind the murder was the previous enmity and not “love jihad” as claimed by BJP leaders.