Fifty-year-old Nandagopal, a businessman who is also the district level office bearer of Hindu Makkal Katchi, had everything, he aspired for. A successful businessman, Nandu as he was known, drove around in a swanky limousine and owned a beautiful house in Tirupur. He was a familiar face in all public meetings held across Tirupur thanks to the 24X7 news channels.
But Nandu aspired for more. When he saw armed commandoes from Tamil Nadu Police guarding senior office bearers like Arjun Sampath, the HMK president, he too felt the need of cops to surround him when he made his public appearances. It is a status symbol worth displaying, Nandu and his associates felt.
Though he tried to get the services of armed cops for his personal security, the District administration and the Government of Tamil Nadu were of the view that Nandagopal does not qualify to be guarded by commandoes. That’s when it happened. Last week, while he was on his way back from a party function, a group of people waylaid him and assaulted him which left Nandu ‘injured seriously’.
The Tiruppur Police probing the case were tense as instances of skirmishes between Islamists and activists of Sangh Parivar were on the high in the district following the recent murder of a Hindu activist. But the cops smelled a rat in the complaint filed by Nandagopal as they always ‘mistrust the obvious’ in all cases. The investigation by the police and questioning of Rudramoorthy, driver of Nandu at the time of attack, spilled the beans.
According to Superintendent of Police Disha Mittal, the attack was planned and conceived by Nandagopal and associates to gain political mileage and some cheap publicity. The driver confessed to the special teams probing the case that Nandagopal thought that the assault story would help him to get the ultimate status symbol, the armed police guards! But Rudramoorthy was not trained in answering the questions put to him by the police.
A case has been registered against Nandagopal for trying to disrupt public order and to create enmity between various religions. The HMK had called for a hartal to protest the attacks on its office bearers and activists by political rivals. But following the investigation by the police, the bandh call evoked no response.
On his part, Arjun Sampath, president, HMK, has ordered a probe by a team of independent professionals including a retired police superintendent into the affair. “If it is found that Nandagopal was staging a drama, he would be expelled from the organisation,” said Sampath.