CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday expressed concern over the disappearance of children in Tamil Nadu and questioned whether the incidents pointed to a wider “pattern.”In a statement, Palaniswami referred to the cases of girls missing from Sriperumbudur and Gingee, as well as the latest report of a boy going missing near Uthangarai. While the Sriperumbudur girl had been rescued, the whereabouts of the Gingee girl remained unknown.“Does the chief minister have even the slightest understanding of the agony that parents go through when children keep going missing? Doesn’t it occur to the govt that this could be happening as a pattern?” he asked.Palaniswami criticised the govt over a series of crimes, including the murder of a woman near Sathankulam and the alleged suicide of a student following caste-based discrimination at a govt-aided school in Coimbatore. He accused the ruling TVK of invoking social justice in its policies and alliances while failing to prevent such incidents.The former chief minister said the manner in which crimes were being reported in the state raised questions over whether criminals had begun viewing themselves as “Leo Das”, the character played by Vijay in his film, Leo.Palaniswami urged the govt to take stringent legal action in the Sathankulam and Coimbatore cases, trace and rescue the missing children at the earliest, and order a comprehensive investigation into the incidents from all possible angles.
