Minister Nirmal Kumar questions DMK for its 'fear' over CM Vijay's Karur trip

COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar on Wednesday questioned the DMK over what he called its fear over Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's proposed Karur visit.

He criticised the DMK's attempt to approach the CBI after the Supreme Court declined to intervene and stop TVK ministers from accusing the DMK of the Karur stampede tragedy.

"DMK is trying to push an additional case with the CBI. But after the Supreme Court used such strong language against them, they simply do not know what to do next. My question is why are they so terrified of the chief minister going to Karur? What kind of petition did they submit to the CBI right now? The CBI is already conducting its own investigation", he told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Coimbatore.

After a setback in the apex court, the DMK petitioned the CBI to monitor actor-politician Vijay’s upcoming visit to Karur and to consult a Supreme Court-appointed Supervisory Committee if extra security safeguards are required.

"Having gone there empty-handed and clueless, their next desperate move is handing over petitions to the CBI", the minister said, adding, "Didn't they (DMK) oppose every CBI probe during their own regime and move the High Court and Supreme Court seeking stays? Why do they suddenly want a CBI probe today?

Claiming DMK had hired a legal team so incompetent that they hadn't even read the FIR before filing the plea, Nirmal Kumar said: "The court explicitly told them to read the FIR first, and by relying on a team that knows absolutely nothing, they have wasted the valuable time of the Supreme Court, solely to malign the chief minister".

"No matter what games they play using this case, it is obvious to everyone that they tried to paralyse our party and our chief minister", he said, adding, "for an entire week, they pulled out all the stops to cripple the party and our leaders".

"Unable to stomach this success, the DMK and AIADMK have joined hands. But every single strategy they deployed has completely failed. They both plotted together to capture power, but everything backfired. Today, both of these parties are steadily eroding. In just a few months, these parties will shrink to a point where there won't be anyone left in them", he claimed.