An inspector embarrassed an otherwise praiseworthy conduct of the Tamil Nadu police force in ensuring law and order after the demise of the state's chief minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5. The policeman's act was unbecoming of a public servant during the seven-day mourning period
As part of the state-wide mourning, liquor shops were directed to shut down and the police were entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring compliance. In Coimbatore, a police team led by inspector Murali noticed that a person had hidden about 1,400 bottles behind a liquor shop for selling it, in full violation of the ban imposed, according to a PTI report on Wednesday.
However, instead of accounting for all the 1,400 liquor bottles seized from Suresh on December 6, Murali showed only 192 bottles as having been seized.
Suresh was let off on bail the next day, it was brought to the higher ups in the department that the inspector has not reported the seizure honestly, resulting in his suspension by Coimbatore police commissioner A Amalraj and a probe into the matter, the agency said.
A head constable has also been suspended for not keeping the higher authorities in the police force informed about the incident.
Jayalalithaa, former Tamil film actor-turned-politician, passed away at the age of 68 at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai after being hospitalised for about 75 days. She had led her party AIADMK to victory in the Assembly elections conducted in May this year.
On her death, A Paneerselvam was sworn-in as the chief minister, while there is a stalemate on who would take over the reigns of the party even as there is speculation that Jayalalithaa's trusted aide Sasikala Natarajan could step into her shoes.
Sasikala has been a close confidante of Jayalalithaa — also known as Amma — for years, and she and her family were even tipped to be the inheritors of property worth more than Rs 117 crore belonging to the former TN chief minister. Speculation that Sasikala would helm the AIADMK has also been rife for quite some time, and was only fuelled when she performed Amma's last rites.
