Chennai: TVS Motor Company Ltd chairman Venu Srinivasan whose name made the healdines in the past few days after he sought anticipatory bail in connection with idol theft case has received more support from various political parties on Sunday, including from Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping, Pon Radhakrishnan.
In a statement issued yesterday, Radhakrishnan said that the FIR against Venu Srinivasan would raise doubts among the public that whether this is a move to save the original culprits or to divert the course of the investigation. He said that Srinivasan has been spending his own funds for the maintenance of temples and helping the poor.
He also demanded that the government conduct the investigation honestly and bring in the actual culprits and punish them, to prevent similar thefts from temples.
Communist Party of India (CPI), secretary R Mutharasan also condemned the move to book Srinivasan in the case. He added that there should be a probe into who instigated the inclusion of Srinivasan’s name in the FIR.
Earlier, S Gurumurthy, an ideologue behind the Swadeshi movement and currently the non-official, part-time director of the Reserve Bank of India, came out in support of Srinivasan.
MDMK founder Vaiko had also demanded dropping of Srinivasan’s name from the FIR.
On Thursday, Srinivasan moved the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail against an FIR filed by the CBCID Idol Wing, Tamilnadu, related to an idol theft case of allegedly replacing a 1400-year-old peacock idol at Chennai’s Kapaleeswarar temple.
Following the plea the police team investigating the case told the Madras High Court that Srinivasan won’t be arrested for six weeks till the court hears the industrialist’s anticipatory bail application.