8 held for attempting attack on Gurumurthy's residence

Chennai police have arrested eight persons in connection with an alleged attempt of attack on the residence of Thuglak Editor S. Gurumurthy.

According to police, a group of motorcycle-borne persons were planning to throw petrol bombs at Gurumurthy's residence on Sunday morning, but sped away after seeing the police security.

Police on Monday said special probe teams were set up and arrested eight persons -- Sasikumar, Janardhanan, Balu, Tamizh, Prasanth, Sakthi, Deepan and Vasudevan.

Two persons out of the group were moving around Gurumurthy's residence in a suspicious manner and a dog inside started barking.

The police security personnel chased them and foiled the attack.

In a statement, police said Sasikumar had several cases pending against him including that of petrol bomb attack on Woodlands Hotel and Sathyam theatre here.

Meanwhile in a series of tweets on Monday, Gurumurthy said: "The current story goes back to the arrest of Police Fakruddin in 2013 who confessed he had been caught before he could shoot me. He had done recci at home & office. The police then insisted I must have a gun man with me and advised us to install CCTV cameras at home and office."

Gurumurthy tweeted that lifestyle of his family doesn't allow rearing dog.

"One of my long-standing friend started sending a dog with its guard everyday between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

"This has been happening for 5 years now. It is that dog that alerted the security and made the miscreants attack impossible," he said.

According to Gurumurthy, the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had advised as to what should and should not be done and an Intelligence Bureau official also visited personally often to keep him on the alert.

"Lessons for the attackers. One, they must know I have been facing threats for 30 years. Theirs is not new to me. Two, they need better training and more courage," Gurumurthy tweeted.IANS