Official's suicide: Police oppose third bail petition by ex TN minister

Madurai: Police on Monday strongly opposed the third bail petition filed by former Minister Agri S S Krishnamoorthy, who was arrested in connection with the alleged suicide of a department official. [caption id=“attachment_2273498” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Former Tamil Nadu minister Agri SS Krishnamoorthy. Image Courtesy: Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly website[/caption] The CB-CID submitted that they had identified telephone numbers of the persons who had been contacted by deceased Muthukumarasamy before he committed suicide on 20 February and the former minister being an influential person could hamper the investigation if released at this stage. Investigating officer and DSP M Prabaharan contended that those who were identified were being interrogated as also involvement of anybody else in the death of the government official. Prabhaharan said the process of filling 10 driver posts in Tirunelveli district was conducted on 16 August last. The collector, who is the head of the three-member committee approved the list of selected candidates, and Muthukumarasamy, who was in charge of the Executive Engineer post, issued the appointment orders. He submitted that after he issued the appointment orders, the former Minister and Chief Engineer Senthil pressured Muthukumarasamy to pay a bribe of Rs.1.75 lakh per candidate for seven candidates. The deceased could not collect the money from the selected candidates. He had arranged for loan from his ‘GPF’ to the tune of Rs. 6 lakh, and for the remaining amount, he tried to arrange for loan. At the instance of the former minister, the CE told Muthukumarasamy that in case of non-payment of the bribe amount, he would face the consequences, Prabhaharan submitted. He submitted they have enough evidence to prove that the minister had criminally conspired to fix Rs 1.75 lakh as bribe per post for the appointment of drivers. The victim who was Assistant Executive Engineer had earned general reputation as an honest officer and had died an unnatural death under mysterious circumstances, within four days after he appointed seven drivers, Prabhaharan said. There was enough materials to prove that he had criminally conspired with the co-accused Senthil and demanded the bribe, he said. In this case subordinate officers of the agriculture department were the main witnesses. There was reasonable and well founded apprehension that the minister could tamper with the evidence and hamper the investigation, CB-CID submitted opposing the bail application. After hearing the investigating agency, the court adjourned the case. PTI