CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu electricity and law minister C T R Nirmal Kumar on Thursday blamed DMK deputy general secretary Kanimozhi for triggering a controversy based on social media content alleging that Kallakurichi MLA C Arul Vignesh had sent an inappropriate message to a woman collector. He said it was “not right” on the part of the DMK leader to raise the issue.He, however, refused to give a direct answer on whether the ruling party MLA had sent an obscene WhatsApp message to the collector. He said he had no authority to speak about the issue or any individuals involved. “I have no authority to speak about the incident. What I want to convey is that Kanimozhi’s social media post is wrong and no such incident took place,” Nirmal Kumar told reporters at the Secretariat after attending a law and order review meeting chaired by chief minister C Joseph Vijay.When reporters specifically asked whether the Kallakurichi MLA had sent a message to the collector, Nirmal Kumar refused to give a straight answer and deflected the question by blaming Kanimozhi. “No such incident involving the Kallakurichi MLA sending a message to the collector took place. Kanimozhi created an issue, stating that she came across such a message in social media. This is not correct. The issue has been amplified and wrongly projected in the media,” he said. Anyone was free to contact those involved in the issue and verify the facts, he added.On the incident involving deputy speaker M Ravishankar, who allegedly assaulted a member of the public after the latter flagged a civic issue in his constituency, the minister said there were contradictory statements regarding the incident. An inquiry was under way to ascertain what had happened and appropriate action would be taken based on its findings.He said the govt had given the police department complete freedom to act. Referring to the crime situation, he said there had been 40 murders, including eight during the Diwali week. The CM had taken all necessary measures to maintain law and order and prevent crimes. The police department had also stepped up drone surveillance as part of its crime-control measures.He charged that the DMK has been trying to create an illusion that law and order is poor in the state.
