CHENNAI,
February
7, 2013 | The Hindu
A group of men attacked
the Bank of Ceylon branch in Egmore on Thursday afternoon, causing injuries to
some employees and police personnel on duty.
Police suspect the
attack was in protest against the visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa to India on Friday.
Around 1.30 p.m., 12
masked men arrived in autorickshaws and motorcycles at Jarret Gardens 2nd Avenue,
Casa Major Road, where the bank in located in a two-storey building, police
said.
They entered the
premises by pushing the two policemen on duty and damaged the guardroom and the
bank’s signboard on the ground floor. “They barged into the first floor office
and attacked clerk Maria Rajesh and trainee Janakan, a city college student,
with clubs and shards of glass. The group shouted slogans against Mr. Rajapaksa
and damaged the cubicles. They threw whatever object they could lay their hands
on at glass partitions and damaged a wall clock,” said an investigating
officer.
The attack lasted only a
couple of minutes. Eight CCTV cameras installed at different spots in the
branch recorded the incidents from 1.30 p.m. to 1.32 p.m. The men did not go to
the top floor, where cash was kept.
Maria Rajesh and Janakan
were taken to the Government Kilpauk hospital. Their condition was stable.
Janakan suffered cut injuries on his back.
According to a senior
police official, the attackers have been indentified as members of an outfit. A
hunt is on to apprehend them. Additional police security has been provided for
the bank and also to the office of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in
Nungambakkam, sources said.
In the morning, police
arrested a 15-member group that tried to lock the TTD information centre on
Venkatanarayana Road in T. Nagar in protest against the visit of Mr. Rajapaksa
to Tirupati. They were later released on bail.
