Sacred thread of a TN Brahmin cut, four men held

The sacred thread of a Brahmin man was cut here today by cadres of a fringe rationalist outfit and four of them were arrested, police said today.
Eight men, who came in four motorbikes, cut the sacred thread (ponool in Tamil and janeu in Hindi) of a man at Triplicane area here, they said.
"Based on the complaint of a witness,an FIR was filed and four activists of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam were arrested.. They will be remanded," a senior police official told PTI.
To a question, he said the arrest was made after a scrutiny of CCTV footage.
He said police were in the process of identifying the victim and arresting the other attackers.

The incident comes against the backdrop of protests against BJP leader H Raja's comment against rationalist leader Periyar's statues, for which he expressed regret later.

Following Raja's comment in a Facebook post, two men, including one belonging to BJP, allegedly damaged a statue of Periyar at Tirupattur near Vellore in an inebirated state yesterday and were arrested.
The BJP functionary was sacked from the party today.
In a Facebook post that was later deleted on Teusday, Raja had said: "Who is Lenin and what is the connection between Lenin and India? What connection India has with Communists? Today Lenin's statue removed in Tripura, tomorrow it will be the statue of EV Ramasamy in Tamil Nadu".

Condemning the incident, Hindu Makkal Katchi chief Arjun Sampath demanded tough action against the culprits.
He alleged that 'innocent brahmins' were being targetted for wearing sacred thread and said such attacks must be stopped.