India seeks serious probe from TN

5 August 2011 09:36 pm Views - 6428

The Central Government of India had asked the Tamil Nadu state government to take up the incident, in which some Sri Lankan nationals were threatened by a gang in Chennai, with due seriousness and bring  the perpetrators to book, informed sources said yesterday.

A group of 84 Sri Lankan pilgrims were threatened by some persons at the hotel they were staying at. Later, these gang members had apparently used threatening language and asked the hotel employees not to provide accommodation to them. Subsequently, with the intervention of the Deputy High Commission of Sri Lanka in Chennai, these Sri Lankans had been transferred to the Mahabodhi Pilgrims Rest.

The Sri Lankan government took up the matter with the High Commission of India in Colombo after the incident. Accordingly, the Central Government of India had instructed the state government in Tamil Nadu to look into the matter seriously particularly because this was a case involving foreign nationals.

Also, the High Commission of India had briefed Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris and the Foreign Secretary about action taken in this regard. According to informed sources, three persons involved in the threatening incident had been arrested on Thursday by the Chennai police.

These Sri Lankans left for India on July 17, 2011 on a pilgrimage. They were scheduled to return to the country yesterday.  According to family members of these pilgrims, the members of the gang who identified themselves   as ‘black tigers’ had snatched away their bags and set them on fire.

It is learnt that these arrested members of the gang belong to a political party of Tamil film director Senthamilan Seeman.  His political party is called the ‘We Tamil Movement’. (By Kelum Bandara)