The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) of Tamil Nadu Police is likely to question Cuddalore MP from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) TRVS Ramesh in connection with the murder of a 60-year-old daily-wage labourer K Govindarasu.
The deceased poor worker hailed from Melmampattu village in Cuddalore district and he was working as a labourer at the cashew factory owned by the MP located at Panruti in Cuddalore district.
The MP and five of his aides were booked by the police. While police could arrest MP’s personal assistant Natarajan, manager Kandavel, and senior employees M Allah Pitchai, K Vinoth and Sundararajan, MP TRVS Ramesh had evaded his arrest. However, he finally surrendered on Monday before the court which remanded him to two days of judicial custody.
On September 19, the victim K Govindarasu had gone to the cashew factory for work but he didn’t return home. It was alleged that he was caught by security guards for stealing a few kilograms of cashew from the processing unit.
It was alleged that TRVS Ramesh and his aides had tortured the Govindarasu for allegedly stealing cashew. According to reports, the victim was taken to the Kadampuliyur police station by two persons. But the police officials on duty directed them to take the victim to the hospital since he was badly injured. But instead of taking this elderly man to the hospital, they took him back to the factory. After this, he was found dead at the factory on September 20.
Some factory workers later informed the family of Govindarasu about his death telling them that his body was kept at Panruti Government Hospital. The police initially lodged a case under section 174 (suspected suicide) of CrPC.
The victim’s son Senthilvel, who works as a daily wager in Chennai rushed to the hospital to receive the body of his father. Initially, he was under the impression that his father died after consuming poison. But when he saw injury marks on the body he lodged a complaint against the MP. The family also approached the collector of the district demanding a CB-CID probe. In the meanwhile, they approached the Madras High Court with the direction to constitute a medical board of the doctors from Puducherry Jipmer Hospital to conduct the post-mortem on September 23.
Anticipating an adverse court decision, DMK led Tamil Nadu govt headed by M.K.Stalin on the same day transferred the case to CB-CID for investigation.
While the accused MP demanded first class facility for him at the Cuddalore central jail, he also claimed innocence and accused the opposition of running political propaganda against him. Pattali Makkal Katchi leader Dr. S. Romadoss had criticized the DMK government for protecting the politician who allegedly murdered a poor labourer.
