Six convicted for planting bomb near ex-Puducherry CM's residence

Puducherry, Feb 4 (IANS) A special court in Puducherry has convicted six persons belonging to a fundamentalist Tamil outfit, Tamilar Viduthalai Padai for planting a bomb near the residence of former Chief Minister of Puducherry, V. Narayanasamy, officials said on Friday.

On January 23, 2014, Narayanasamy's staff members found a bomb planted under a car in front of his official residence. The senior Congress leader was then the Chief Minister of Puducherry.

Later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted a probe and arrested the culprits.

Police had arrived on the scene and removed the bomb and an expert team from the Tamil Nadu bomb disposal squad reached the spot and defused the bomb at the premises of Uppalam port the next day.

The prosecution in its report said that the bomb contained 21 electrical detonators and 12 non-electrical detonators.

The bomb squad had in its report submitted to the police noted that if the bomb had detonated, it would have caused major damage to lives and properties.

In March 2014, Tamil Nadu 'Q' branch arrested 4 members of Tamilar Viduthalai Padai on charges of planting bombs near the residence of the then Puducherry Chief Minister, V. Narayanasami, and also planting a bomb near the Reliance supermarket at Uthangudi, Madurai.

The arrested were identified as R. Tiruselvam (33), his brother R. Kalailingam (37),A M. Tamilarasan (38), and Kaviarasu alias Raja (38), all from Sivaganga district.

Karthik alias Aadhi (32) and another person, John Martin (28) were also arrested for their involvement in the incident.

The investigation was conducted by the NIA which took over the case in March 2014. According to offices of the NIA, the accused on questioning said that they planted the bombs in protest to the then UPA government promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector.