Dinakaran Attack Case
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The ''Dinakaran'' attack was a firebomb attack by M. K. Alagiri's supporters on 9 May 2007 on the
Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...
office of ''
Dinakaran Dinakaran is a Tamil daily newspaper distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's Sun Network. ''Dinakaran'' is the second largest circulated Tamil dai ...
'', a
Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...
newspaper, which resulted in the deaths of three people. The attack was a response to a survey published by ''Dinakaran'' on who people preferred as the future heir of M. Karunanidhi, chief of the political party
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; ; DMK) is an Indian political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry, where it is currently the main ...
(DMK). During mass protests throughout the region, the offices of the newspaper were firebombed and two press employees and a private security guard died. 17 people were charged by the
Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...
, but were all acquitted by the district court.
Dayanidhi Maran Dayanidhi Murasoli Maran (born 5 December 1966) is an Indian politician and one of the prominent members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party. He was elected four times as a Member of Parliament to Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency du ...
resigned from the
Union Cabinet The Union Council of Ministers is the Cabinet (government), principal executive organ of the Government of India, which serves to aid and advise the President of India in execution of their functions.Article 74 of the ''Constitution of India' ...
, where he had been the minister for communications and information technology, as a result of the controversy surrounding the attack, which created a rift between him and DMK.


Background

M. K. Stalin Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin (born 1 March 1953) is an Indian politician and former actor serving as the 8th and current List of chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, chief minister of Tamil Nadu since 2021. He is the third son of the former Chief Min ...
and M. K. Azhagiri, sons of the DMK chief Karunanidhi, were in a succession battle to be his political heir. In May 2007, ''Dinakaran'' caused controversy when it published the results of a series of opinion polls conducted by A.C. Nielsen Co. which appeared to show that Stalin had more public approval than his elder brother Azhagiri – 70% of those polled preferred Stalin, while only 2% preferred Azhagiri (another 2% supported M. K. Kanimozhi, daughter of Karunanidhi). The newspaper is part of the
Sun Group Sun Group is an Indian media conglomerate, based in Chennai. It was founded by Kalanithi Maran in 1992. The Sun Group, besides television media, operates 48 FM radio stations, two daily newspapers, five magazines, a DTH satellite service and ...
which is owned by
Kalanidhi Maran Kalanithi Maran (born 24 July 1964) is an Indian billionaire media proprietor. He is the chairman and founder of Sun Group, one of India's largest media conglomerates. He owns multiple television channels, newspapers, weeklies, FM radio station ...
, who is a grand-nephew of Karunanidhi and brother of the DMK politician and ex-Union minister Dayanidhi Maran.


Incident

On 9 May 2007, agitated by the results of the survey, DMK cadres in the southern district of Tamil Nadu, particularly the supporters of Azhagiri, engaged in protests at
Kamuthi Kamuthi also spelled Kamudi actually stands for Kavinmigu Mullai Thirunagar. Kamuthi is a Panchayat town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Kamuthi is known for being the home of the Kamuthi Solar Power Project, a l ...
,
Dindigul Dindigul (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Dindigul district. Dindigul City is Located in the Southwest Region of Tamil Nadu. Dindigul is an ancient settlement r ...
,
Tirunelveli Tirunelveli (), also known as Nellai and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirunelveli District. It is the fourth-largest munici ...
,
Virudhunagar Virudhunagar is a city and the administrative headquarter of the Virudhunagar district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located southwest of the state capital Chennai and south of Madurai. Virudhunagar emerged as an important trade c ...
,
Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port industrial city in  Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the district. ...
and various places in the
Theni district Theni District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in India. Surrounded by hills, the district is located to the west of Madurai district. The town of Theni is the district headquarters. The district is divided into two natural div ...
. At Madurai, they protested by burning copies of the newspapers and raising slogans against the survey and the Maran brothers. They also held a road block protest, threw stones and set seven buses on fire. Anticipating trouble, a team of anti-riot police under the deputy superintendent of Madurai were deployed outside the offices of the media group. Despite the police presence, a group of men hurled stones at the building housing the offices of ''Dinakaran'', Sun TV and ''
Tamil Murasu ''Tamil Murasu'' () is a Singapore-based Tamil-language newspaper officially launched on 2 May 1936 by Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani, Tamil Murasu is Singapore's only Tamil-language newspaper. It is one of the sixteen newspapers in Singapore. M ...
'', all belonging to Sun Group. They also threw
petrol bomb A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable liqui ...
s and set the building on fire, resulting in the death by
asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ...
of two employees and a private security guard. The staff of the newspaper blocked the Chennai Madurai highway, demanding the arrest of Azhagiri, accusing him of responsibility for the incident. They also accused the police of inaction. Superintendent T. S. Anbu said there was no deliberate dereliction of duty by the police, but the Director General of Police, D. Mukharjee, later admitted dereliction of duty by policemen and ordered a probe be conducted by a senior police official.


Aftermath

Kalanidhi Maran, managing director of Sun Networks, called this incident an "attack on
freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic Media (communication), media, especially publication, published materials, shoul ...
", and vowed to fight for justice. M. Karunanidhi condemned the attack, calling it "an attack on democracy and press freedom", and promised legal action. On the issue of political heirs, he said that "there is no place for dynastic succession in the DMK". He later told the
Tamil Nadu Assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the  Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members, all of whom are democratically elected using the first-past-the-post system. The presiding officer of t ...
that he was puzzled by the timing of the survey, and had told the ''Dinakaran'' management that such polls may create unnecessary problems, but that the newspaper had ignored his advice. Several journalists' associations condemned the attack and submitted a memorandum calling for immediate police action, urging the government to bring charges against not only the assailants but also "the persons behind the conspiracy". Maran, who is usually present along with Karunanidhi on most party functions, stayed away from the celebration of Karunanidhi's 50th year as a legislator, which was attended by
Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...
and
Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (, ; ; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a big-tent liberal political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. ...
. DMK's administrative committee suggested that Maran be removed from the Union Cabinet for violating party discipline. Maran, however, resigned voluntarily, insisting that he had never taken part in anti-party activities and that someone was misleading the party chief.
Kalaignar TV Kalaignar TV is a Tamil-language general entertainment pay television channel based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The channel was launched on 15 September 2007 as Kalaignar, and is named after former Chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidh ...
, a new channel owned by the Karunanidhi family, was launched as a potential rival to Sun TV when the tensions between Karunanidhi and the Maran brothers were at their height. The government also announced the formation of
Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited (TNACTCL) () is a state-government Public Sector Undertaking of Government of Tamil Nadu located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union ...
, a new
multiple-system operator A multiple-system operator (MSO) is an operator of multiple cable or direct-broadcast satellite television systems. A cable system in the United States, by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) definition, is a facility serving a single communi ...
, which was intended to end the monopoly of
Sun Cable Vision The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...
. In December 2008, the Marans made peace with the Karunanidhi family.


Court proceedings

The management of ''Dinakaran'' accused the police of ignoring their formal complaint, which specifically sought action against Azhagiri, and instead chose to act on a ''
suo motu In law, ''sua sponte'' (Latin: "of his, her, its, or their own accord") or ''suo motu/suo moto'' ("on its own motion") describes an act of authority taken without formal prompting by another party. The term is usually applied to actions taken by a ...
'' complaint which did not include his name. On 16 May 2009, police arrested their prime suspect, P. Pandi (aka "Attack" Pandi), who later confessed to spearheading the attack. The case was transferred to the
Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...
, which named 17 accused in a 32-page charge sheet, including a deputy superintendent charged with dereliction of duty. In December 2009, all 17 were acquitted by the district sessions court, which claimed that the case had not been proven beyond all reasonable doubt. In March 2011, the
Madras High Court The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Courts of India, High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is one of ...
allowed an appeal challenging this decision, despite a delay in filing the same. The CBI contended that the trial court "ought to have considered the evidentiary value of Prosecution Witness 1", even though he had "turned hostile" during the proceedings.


References

{{coord missing, Tamil Nadu 2007 murders in India Building and structure arson attacks in India Arson in 2007 2000s in Tamil Nadu Politics of Tamil Nadu Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Deaths from asphyxiation Madurai Mass media in Madurai Riots and civil disorder in Tamil Nadu Mass media in Tamil Nadu Attacks on mass media offices in Asia 2000s political riots Attacks on office buildings in India Attacks on buildings and structures in 2007 2007 in mass media Mass murder in 2007 21st-century mass murder in India 2007 fires in Asia Mass media-related controversies in India May 2007 in India May 2007 crimes in Asia Stone pelting in India Political riots in India