Jallikattu protest: Tamil Nadu cop sets auto on fire, video goes viral

Chennai: Chennai city police commissioner S. George on Monday said that the genuineness of the video telecast on a television channel which appears to show a policemen setting fire to an auto, will be probed.

“I have inputs about such videos doing rounds in social media. The Cyber Crime police will investigate to verify the genuineness of the video,” the officer said.

In the video, which has been shared widely on WhatsApp groups as well, showed a policeman throwing a clutch of burning newspapers into an auto rickshaw somewhere in Mylapore, not far from Marina beach, where the jallikattu protest was going on for a week.

Experts feel the raw footage of the video should be handed over to the Tamil Nadu Government for an investigation. The footage needs to be ascertained whether it is genuine and unedited.

Another question doing the rounds in police circles is about the intelligence gathering mechanism which had failed to foresee such a well-planned attack on policemen from the bylines of hamlets opposite the Marina beach.

It appears the unruly crowd that attacked the police were ready with enough materials to attack the police while the police personnel were not even having helmets and lathis to begin with.

“The police personnel were asked to leave their lathis in a room in a college on Kamarajar Salai initially because senior government officials believed that there was no need for lathis when negotiating with youngsters protesting so peacefully,” sources said.

But such a belief was short-lived as an unruly mob started pelting stones and petrol bombs at the cops from hamlets across the road from the beach. The police personnel had to rush back to the college to collect their lathis to defend themselves.