ECR car chase: Accused 'confirms' kin's affiliation to AIADMK; police released confession video to protect DMK, charges BJP

CHENNAI: In an unusual turn of events, a confession video of the accused in the infamous ECR car chase incident intimidating women has created a political debate in the state. At the epicentre of the controversy is the confession video, in which the accused asserts having no affiliation with the ruling DMK party but emphasises that his relatives are with the opposition AIADMK.

Joining the chorus, Minister for Law S Regupathy has launched a scathing attack on the archrival AIADMK, accusing its members and families of perpetrating heinous crimes against women.

"The truth is finally out. The background of each crime clearly indicates that AIADMK members and their families are responsible for posing a threat to women, including sexual assault and Pocso crimes. Where will the opposition parties, who have falsely accused the DMK, now hide their faces? Will the Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, who made a bold statement, apologise?" he asked in a social media post, quoting the video of the accused, which was posted by a Tamil news channel.

However, the BJP state unit unveiled a series of queries and alleged that the Chennai Police had released the confession statement in the first place to protect the DMK's image as the car which the accused were travelling in bore the ruling party's flag.

BJP state vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy has termed the police's action as a "serious violation" of the law, questioning the need for courts and judges when the police can release such statements before the trial.

"Is this not a blatant attempt by the police to become judges?" he asked.

Narayanan described the police's action as "highly atrocious and fascist mentality of the Dravidian Model DMK."

He also raised questions about the police's selective approach in releasing confession statements and touted the confession video to be of a trained parrot.

"Will the police dare to release the confession statement of Gnanasekaran, who was arrested in the Anna University issue?" he asked and drew parallels with the 2G spectrum case, in which the confession statement of Sadiq Basha, one of the accused, was not released to the media.

He alleged that if Basha's confession statement had been released, it would have exposed the involvement of the DMK leadership and potentially ended their political careers.