AIADMK chief Palaniswami targets CM Stalin over crimes against women in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Feb 9 (PTI) AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday condemned Chief Minister M K Stalin for “being unable to prevent crimes against women,” and demanded that the DMK regime, with an iron hand, rein in criminal elements.

Listing incidents of crime against women and children, Palaniswami alleged that be it children or adults, Tamil Nadu has turned unsafe for all of them under CM Stalin, who handles the police portfolio.

He listed incidents, including the sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl student allegedly by three government school teachers in Krishnagiri, the suspicious death of a class 9 girl student in Cuddalore, a pregnant woman getting pushed out of a moving train in Vellore for resisting sexual assault, the Anna university sexual assault case and the East Coast Road car chase incident here.

A former Chief Minister, Palaniswami, also referred to the recent allegation of a senior woman IPS officer, an ADGP, Kalpana Nayak, that there had been an attempt on her life last year for unravelling irregularities in police recruitment. The government denied the allegations and had said the fire in the police officer’s chamber was due to short circuit.

Condemning the chief minister for “not being able to prevent crimes against women,” Palaniswami said at least from now on, the state government, with an iron hand, must rein in criminal elements for effective maintenance of law and order.

Also, the AIADMK top leader underscored a number of other allegations, including reported contamination of an overhead water tank in Tiruchirappalli district’s Srirangam block at a time when the Vengaivayal incident (Pudukottai district) itself had not been resolved.

Mocking at Stalin for holding roadshows across the state like the “monarchs” of the yore, the Leader of Opposition alleged the chief minister during his visit to Tirunelveli district did not have the heart to listen to the grievances of Manjoli estate workers.

The AIADMK chief, repeating his accusation of CM Stalin being an, “inept and a doll Chief Minister,” alleged Stalin led an “unruly” regime in the name of Dravidian model of governance, which was an aberration of the term Dravidian.

All sections of people have, hence, resolved to dislodge the DMK regime in the 2026 Assembly election, he claimed.

Palaniswami was the CM from 2017 to 2021.