Controversial Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police K Premkumar, who has been heading the team that investigated the Sankararaman murder case and arrested the two Shankarachayas and 22 others, has been transferred ahead of the Assembly by-election in Kancheepuram slated for May 14.
In a shuffle effected late on Monday night, the government transferred Premkumar and posted him as SP, Crime Branch CID-III, Chennai.
Since the by-elections to Kancheepuram and Gummudipoondi Assembly seats have already been announced and consequently the code of conduct has come into force, the government is understood to have got the prior clearance from the Election Commission before moving him out.
Premkumar drew flak as SP of Dharmapuri during the last Lok Sabha elections in May 2004 and the commission, therefore, willingly approved his transfer this time, it is learnt.
Since the charge-sheet in the Sankararaman murder case has been filed and the trial is set to start in Chengalpattu sessions court on April 27, there is very little role for the SIT now. Even so, it is not without significance that the two top men in the SIT have been shunted out in a matter of one month.
Earlier on March 26, Additional Superintendent of Police S P Sakthivel, who was the investigating officer in the case, was promoted and transferred to Chennai as SP of Enforcement Wing. As recently as on April 13, the government named Kancheepuram Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Bhubaneswari as the investigating officer in the Sankararaman murder case in the place of Sakthivel.
Official sources, however, say that though Premkumar has been transferred out of Kancheepuram, he will continue to head the SIT.
Whatever be the official reason touted, the transfers are seen as an attempt to soft-pedal the case and thereby try to win back the alienated Hindus who are devotees of the Sankaracharyas.
AIADMK nominees
Meanwhile, AIADMK on Monday named T Mythili, widow of former AIADMK minister S S Thirunavukkarassu, as its nominee for the by-election to the Tamil Nadu assembly from Kancheepuram.
AIADMK General Secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, in a statement here, said that K S Vijayakumar, son of former AIADMK minister, the late K Sundarsanam, would be the nominee for the Gummidipoondi seat.
The by-elections were necessitated by the death of AIADMK members S S Thirunavukkarassu (Kancheepuram) and K Sudarsanam (Gummudipoondi).
As such it has high stakes in retaining them, more so as they are being held ahead of the general elections due by May next year.
The AIADMK is likely to take on the DMK, backed by the PMK and Congress from among its allies which have sizeable votes in these two constituencies. A gain for the AIADMK is the decision of the Dalit Panthers of India, headed by Thol Tirumavalavan, to enter the contest in Kancheepuram. Dalits have been supportive of the action taken by the government against Sri Jayendra Saraswati whom they have come to see as a symbol of Brahminical superiority.
|
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
