Techie death: Where is ex-councillor? Police clueless

Eleven days have passed since 23-year-old techie Subhasri Ravi died after an illegal hoarding erected by a local AIADMK leader fell on her. But the Chennai Police are still clueless on the whereabouts of C Jayagopal, the former councillor, who had erected the banners without necessary permission to welcome deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam for his family event.

Jayagopal, an influential leader in the OMR-Pallikaranai area in the city, got himself admitted to a private hospital on September 13, a day after the unfortunate incident that snuffed out the life of a young techie. Though the Opposition parties and activists have been demanding Jayagopal’s arrest, the Chennai Police has been evasive on the action it has taken.

It has now come to light that the police are clueless on the whereabouts of the former AIADMK councillor, who is understood to have gone into hiding. In a series of incidents that painted them in a poor light, sleuths at the Pallikaranai police station called up a number of journalists seeking to know how they knew Jayagopal.

These journalists had tried reaching him through his mobile number. “This shows that the police has started going through his call details only now. They would not get anything by talking to these journalists,” a scribe, who received a phone call from the police, said, adding that analysing call details after 10 days show how serious the men in khaki are in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Efforts to reach the police officers handling the case proved futile. But the police maintain that they are following the due procedures in dealing with a case – the FIR registered on September 13 mentioned Jayagopal, but no action has been forthcoming on him so far.

Subhasri’s death had triggered demands for weeding out the ‘hoarding and cut-out’ culture in the state with all political parties asking their cadre not to erect banners. But activists say the police is not serious in arresting the former councillor since he is being “protected by his political bosses.”

S David Manohar of the Arappor Iyakkam, an organisation fighting against the hoarding menace, told DH that the police are delaying the arrest of the perpetrator due to political compulsion. “The court had passed severe strictures on the police after Subhasri’s death. But no action has come so far. In fact, the former councillor should have been arrested by now and the legal process against him should have started. We have no hopes of anything happening,” he said.