In October 2012, as the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa addressed a gathering after laying the foundation stone for the construction of housing units for police personnel in Kancheepuram district, she was all praise for the home department. “The administration of law and order squarely depends on the leadership qualities of the person ruling the state. The ruler’s leadership qualities influence police performance,” she said. Eight years down the line, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami’s qualities, who claims to rule the state “the Amma way” or in the “name of Amma”, seem to have failed to influence the police performance. The handling the Sathankulam father-son death case has clearly exposed the malady of the ruling dispensation under Palanisami, who is also the minister for home department.
On June 24, as entire Sathankulam went on a protest mode, demanding justice for Jayaraj, 58, and his son Bennicks, 31, both killed in a brutal custodial torture, the chief minister was in Coimbatore, reviewing coronavirus relief work in the city. “The father died of respiratory illness and the son died of heart attack.” Three days later, on June 28, he said “the case will be transferred to the CBI”. Apparently, the chief minister was well informed that the case has been taken up suo moto by the Madurai Bench of Madras High court; Kovilpatti Judicial Magistrate Bharathidasan was appointed to investigate into the police excess inside the Sathankulam Police Station on the night of June 19. From day one, even as he is in charge of the home portfolio which handles law and order in the state, Palanisami seemed to have been groping in the dark. At the first instance, after Sathankulam went into a protest mode, the two police officers alleged to have been involved in the case were shifted to the Armed Reserves. Subsequently the two Sub Inspectors—Raghu Ganesh and Balakrishnan—were placed under suspension. The SHO-Inspector of Police was also suspended.
But, the state government was in for a rude shock when suo moto contempt proceedings were initiated against three officers of the Thoothukudi police. Then came another big blow. The court, for the first time in the history of the state, ordered revenue officials to take control over the Sathankulam police station and protect every bit of evidence. This came as a major embarrassment for the police department and its minister Palanisami.
And then came the transfers. The entire batch of 24 officers in the Sathankulam police station was transferred in a single order after the court’s intervention. Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan, who was shielded by the government till June 30, was shunted out. He was replaced by Villupuram SP S. Jeyakumar, while the South Zone IG post, which was held by Shanmuga Rajeswaran, was handed over to S. Murugan IPS. Incidentally, both the officers have antecedents of accusations against them.
The appointments of Jeyakumar and Murugan have been mired in controversy. While the former was named and probed by the CBI in the gutkha scam, the latter was indicted in a sexual harassment case against a gazetted rank woman IPS officer. The woman IPS officer had launched a complaint against him and went to court, which is still under investigation.
Despite these moves to save the police personnel and the image of the government, the Madras High Court had gone a step ahead and asked the CB-CID to investigate the case till the CBI takes over. Highly placed sources in the police department say that the system has completely collapsed. “During any such excess, the chief minister will get an internal report from the home secretary, the DGP and the intelligence. Based on the reports, after discussion with the home secretary and the DGP, the chief minister or the home minister takes his own decision. These days, there is no such coordination happening in the department. The police personnel, like in Thoothukudi case, seem to have taken law into their hands,” said a senior IG rank officer, who has worked under both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi.
Apparently, Palanisami doesn’t seem to have learnt from former leader Jayalalithaa’s, or even his own, mistakes. In May 2018, when 13 people were fired upon by the police during the Thoothukudi Sterlite protests, he said that “I too saw it on TV and came to know about it.” The Sterlite protest killings case too was handed over to the CBI and a commission to probe into the killings was set up under retired judge Aruna Jagadeesan. The one-man committee under Jagadeesan is yet to make any breakthrough in the case.
