The High Court has ordered the recording of the video footage related to the violence in the AIADMK party office

The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu Additional Public Prosecutor to submit a report along with video footage regarding the July 11 violence by the AIADMK at the party’s headquarters.

Rejecting ABB Raj Tilak’s plea seeking time till Monday, Justice N Satish Kumar ordered him to submit the statement and video footage by 2.30 pm tomorrow and adjourned the case till then.

The judge passed the order when the criminal original petitions of the party’s interim general secretary K. Palaniswami and ousted president O. Panneerselvam came up for hearing in the afternoon.

The petitions sought an order to the South Chennai Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) to remove the stamp affixed by him at the party headquarters on Monday and hand it over to the respective petitioners.

Objecting to the incidents of violence, the judge directed the ABB, who appeared on behalf of the police and RTO, to take strict action against the culprits. “They cannot create panic among the general public and if they want to fight they can hire a football stadium and stage the same. They cannot do so on the streets,” the judge said.

In the court, senior lawyers from the EPS and OPS sides exchanged blame with each other.

Senior advocate Vijay Narayan alleged that OPS and his men entered the party office armed with sticks and stones. The police were silent spectators and allowed the violence to escalate so that they could take drastic measures like sealing the party office premises. The EPS unit had applied for police protection on July 8, suspecting that another unit might try to take over the party headquarters. Then, a party decision-making committee chose Palaniswami for the current post. But the police did not take any action on the petition, Narayan added.

Denying the allegation, senior OPS counsel Ramesh said that those involved in the violence belonged to the EPS group.

APP reported that around 300 personnel were stationed around the office that day. The RTO has locked and sealed the premises only to prevent violence and casualties and to maintain peace and tranquility in the area.

Ramesh suggests that differences between two people can be resolved through certain mechanisms. They can go for mutual settlement or approach civil court.

However, EPS senior counsel Vijay Narayan responded that the two were unlikely to sit together to arrive at a mutual settlement.

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