COIMBATORE: The BJP on Wednesday demanded an NIA probe into an alleged security breach during Vice President CP Radhakrishnan’s visit to Coimbatore.

Ahead of the Vice President’s scheduled visit to the Coimbatore corporation office in Town Hall to garland the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, two men in an inebriated condition drove their two-wheeler past the police barricades, triggering chaos. They managed to speed away from the spot; however, they were caught later, and the police identified them as Ashiq and Anish Rahman.

Meanwhile, BJP’s district president J Ramesh Kumar urged the police to book the duo under non-bailable charges for endangering public safety. “It raises suspicion as to why they were carrying laptops. The NIA should investigate to uncover the truth,” he said to the media, while threatening to protest if there is no further action.

BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan also voiced serious concern, while claiming that it may be an intentional attempt to disrupt the Vice President’s event. “It shouldn’t be dismissed as a trivial incident, as the two men were drunk. They might have been part of a larger plot to disrupt the Vice President's event,” she said.

Accusing the DMK of downplaying past incidents, including a car bomb blast at a temple in Coimbatore as a mere cylinder blast, she said the BJP would seek the intervention of the central government if the state government fails to investigate transparently.