Suspend Tamil Nadu’s AGDP (Intelligence): Annamalai to Governor

Alleging that there is no “transparency” in the probe into fake passport scam, Tamil Nadu BJP on Thursday knocked at the doors of Governor R N Ravi seeking his intervention in suspension of officers involved, including ADGP (Intelligence) Davidson Devaasirvatham, and transferring the case to any national investigation agency.

Last week, state BJP chief K Annamalai had written to Ravi alleging that over 200 fake passports were issued under the Avaniyapuram police station in Madurai when Devasirvatham was the Commissioner of Police of Madurai City.

In the memorandum submitted on Thursday, Annamalai said there has been no progress in the case after a letter seeking sanction to prosecute the officials concerned sent by the Home Secretary is pending with Devaasirvatham, who is “also a party to the case.”

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Annamalai, an ex-IPS officer himself, said Illavarasu was the Inspector, while Dharmalingam was the Inspector of Police (Intelligence), Siva Kumar the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Intelligence), and Devasirvatham, the Commissioner. He wants all of them to be placed under suspension as this issue concerns “national security.”

Annamalai said officials in the passport and post offices have sent their consent for prosecuting the concerned, but consent for legal proceedings against police officers and Devaasirvatham haven’t been granted leading to hampering the case trial and proceedings. “Moreover, it is evident that the probe lacks transparency due to the involvement of those implicated in this case,” he added.

The sanction is not being given despite Eswaramurthy, IGP (Intelligence-internal security) mentioning in his report to the Madras High Court that Devaasirvatham, who was Madurai Police Commissioner when the police verification for the visas were done, as one of the officials to be investigated in this case, the BJP said.

In the memorandum, the BJP said Avaniyapuram police station was chosen because the “fake passport brokers couldn’t lure '' the police inspector and the head constable with money in Madurai's Koodal Pudhur police station. Annamalai said a fake passport was issued to Sudhakaran Subramani from Koodal Pudhur police station despite the head constable and the inspector not recommending the file.

The head constable, S Rani, found that Sudhakaran Subramani was not a resident of the address and had mentioned “adverse” as the remarks meaning that the information provided by the applicant does not match in reality.

“Subsequently, the Inspector rejected the application, but the Assistant Commissioner IS Siva Kumar overruled the rejections and approved the application. Siva Kumar was approving the application on behalf of the Commissioner of Police Devaasirvatham,” he said.

Annamalai also enclosed 67 passports that were approved “under the watch of Devasirvatham and his team of corrupt officers” and most of the passports were with addresses under the Avaniyapuram police station limit.

He also recalled that the National Investigative Agency is already investigating a similar fake passport case which revealed the involvement of active Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres.

“We request the state government to keep the police officers involved under immediate suspension to avoid further interference in this case and the case be transferred to CBI/NIA immediately,” he said.