Former Tamil Nadu agriculture minister SS Krishnamoorthy and chief engineer Senthil have been sent to 15 days judicial custody on Sunday in connection with the suicide of engineer S Muthukumarasamy. The duo has been charged with abetment of suicide and criminal conspiracy.
An engineer with the agriculture department, Muthukumarasamy committed suicide on February 20 after allegedly being pressured by superiors for key appointments. Krishnamoorthy’s staff has been accused of demanding bribes from the officer over postings.
Based on call records, Senthil has often called the engineer and allegedly offered Muthukumarasamy’s son a job in the agricultural department following his death.
Muthukumarasamy’s son said, “The accused used to often call my father up. We will wait and watch how the CB-CID probe pans out. We are not under any kind of political pressure.”
On February 20, Muthukurmarasamy jumped in front of a train and was killed. Soon after his death, allegation were made by opposition parties including PMK, Cong, DMK that the official killed himself ‘due to pressure’ of then minister and sought his arrest and CBI probe.
The death of the official snowballed into a political row prompting AIADMK to drop Krishnamurthy from the state cabinet and strip him off his party posts.
Senior DMK leader TKS Elangovan said, “We want the state government to order a CBI probe. CB-CID probe not enough as in the past it has often failed to draw results.”
