A few days ago, a car belonging to a BJP member in Tamil Nadu mysteriously went up in flames. Sathish Kumar, the BJP district secretary for Tiruvallur West, had filed a complaint with the police that his car — which was parked at his house in the Maduravoyal area in Chennai — was set ablaze late on Thursday, April 14. The police launched an investigation and accessed CCTV footage to check what really happened.

The CCTV visuals showed a man dressed in a white shirt approaching the car parked on the side of the road, and then looking inside through the windows from all sides. Then, he cycles away from the spot. Moments later, another man dressed in dark clothes is seen pouring or spraying something all over the car, and then setting it on fire. The CCTV shows the car engulfed in flames and then the man runs away from the spot.

Tamil Nadu | BJP member arrested for setting his own car on fire, passing it off as a crime. Police accessed CCTV footage which showed the BJP member torching the car himself. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/k9UHeGqC9X

— TheNewsMinute (@thenewsminute) April 17, 2022

Seeing the car ablaze, people informed the family of the BJP member, who called the police. The police reached the spot immediately as there were rumours that a petrol bomb was hurled at the car.

However, after watching the CCTV footage, the police realised that the man who set fire to the car resembled Sathish Kumar himself. The police interrogated him, and Sathish then confessed that he had set fire to his own car. 

Sathish said that his wife had been insisting that he buy her gold jewellery, but he could not afford it. He reportedly then told the police that his wife demanded that he sell his car and buy her the jewellery. Sathish then decided to set his car on fire and claim the insurance money for the gift for his wife. However, the CCTV footage foiled his plan. While the BJP member was taken into custody by the police, he was released later.