Sack ministers who didn’t help dying cop: Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI - Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa Saturday demanded the sacking of two ministers for not going to the rescue of a policeman who bled to death on a road after a violent attack.

Sub-Inspector R. Vetrivel was hacked by a criminal gang in broad daylight Thursday in Tirunelveli district. As he lay on the road bleeding, a convoy of ministers M.R.K. Paneerselvam and T.P.M. Mohideen Khan reached there.

Television footage showed the ministers and other officials, including police personnel, waiting passively for an ambulance, without bothering to shift the injured man to hospital.

Vetrivel, writhing in pain, bled to death soon after.

In a stinging statement, Jayalalithaa said: “The inhuman act of the two ministers is one example of the DMK government’s general attitude.”

She said had the injured sub-inspector been taken to a nearby hospital in one of the vehicles of the ministers’ convoy, his life could have been saved.

“It is not only the anti-social elements who are responsible for the cop’s murder but also the inhuman attitude of the two ministers,” she added.

According to her, the police in the state were afraid of “anti-social elements”, not the other way around. She pointed out that gang attacks had taken place even near police stations.

Meanwhile, Tirunelveli District Collector M. Jayaraman told reporters that the fear of unexploded bombs lying near Vetrival and the fear of a fresh attack made the ministers and officials nervous.

“The sub-inspector was injured after being attacked by country bombs and deadly weapons. There were some unexploded bombs near him and there was some smoke. The policemen accompanying the two ministers were chasing the gang members. In all, there was a delay of only 10 minutes in taking the injured man to the hospital,” he said.

Since the ambulance was delayed, they decided to take Vetrivel in a van.

Additional Director General of police K. Radhakrishnan has gone to Tirunelvelli to oversee the investigations into the incident. According to police, seven people have been arrested for the murder.

The police say Vetrivel was not the intended target of the killers, who were looking for another sub-inspector, Sivasubramanian.

The police said it was Sivasubramanian’s wife and her relatives who planned the attack - the third on him - as he had escaped the earlier attempts.

Police are hunting for Sivagami, the wife, and her relatives who are absconding.

The audacious killing of the policeman Friday triggered the transfer of Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police K.P. Jain. Letika Saran has succeeded him.