JOIN USPolice said two members of the gang had been arrested in this connection.
“It is purely a case of mistaken identity by which Vetrivel had been attacked and killed,” police said.
Vetrivel (35) of Alwarkurichi Police station was asked by the deputy superintendent of police when he was returning after attending court to be near one end of the Kadananathi river bridge as the health minister was about to cross the bridge. SI Sivasubramanian was on duty on the other side of the bridge .
Police said the gang had been asked to attack Sivasubramanian who had disputes with his in-laws and wife over dowry.
Ministers in a spot
In a fallout to the gruesome murder, two ministers, including the health minister and the state health secretary, were put in a spot on Friday for not acting fast enough to save the dying cop, adds DHNS from Chennai.
The controversy erupted after TV channels showed disturbing footages of the cold-blooded murder, which gave the impression that the ministers or the accompanying officials did not act immediately and rush the dying cop to hospital.
Health minister M R K Pannerselvam and sports minister T P M Mohideen Khan happened to pass by that way along with the health secretary V K Subburaj to inspect patients afflicted by a strange fever in some nearby villages in that district.
The footages showed the hapless SI “fall to the ground with no one coming to his help”. He later died on the way to hospital. Vetrivel, in a very critical condition, was initially taken in one of the minister’s convoy vehicle and then transferred to an ambulance van.