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STATES:
TAMIL NADU
Heroine Chase
There are allegations that the police use narcotics
to settle political scores
By Arun Ram
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DEATH FORETOLD: Stalin at the funeral of his friend Narayanan (above);
many ascribe his death to Jayalalitha's harassment
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On the night of
July 15, Ramesh Narayanan, a businessman and a close friend of Chennai
Mayor M.K. Stalin, asked his cousin Ramanan to give him a wake-up call
at 5.30 a.m. the next day. Dutifully Ramanan went to Narayanan's Anna
Nagar residence in the morning. But there was no response. Inside, Narayanan,
38, his wife Kanchana, 34, and their three daughters Monisha, 11, Sharmila,
9, and Tinku, 11 months old, had gone to eternal sleep after consuming
soft drinks spiked with a potent pesticide. But to avoid adding another
whodunit to Tamil Nadu's list of surreal happenings, Narayanan left behind
a two-page note blaming the police for the suicide.
In charges filed by T.G. Deivasigamani, a contractor,
Narayanan has been named as the conduit for a Rs 7 crore bribe paid to
Stalin, son of DMK president M. Karunanidhi, and former highways minister
T. Kiruttinan for a road-laying project. "I haven't taken a single
paisa. Now I fear I may be implicated in a heroin-related case. I appeal
to Chief Minister Jayalalitha not to harass ordinary mortals like me."
Heroin. It is something the world dreads. But
for the Chennai Police it helps them to nail targets who may otherwise
dodge the law. "Recovery" of the contraband from a suspect and
framing charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)
Act will keep the accused in custody for a long time. Not a bad idea,
but when their chase is combined with the game of politics, it becomes
a sordid tale of state-sponsored terrorism. Says a senior lawyer in the
Madras High Court: "Following a complaint, an fir with criminal charges
is prepared and the police can raid the suspect's residence. An 'accidental
recovery' of narcotic substances ensures that the accused is denied bail
for a long time. This period could be used to extract statements against
the other accused."
Chennai Commissioner of Police K. Muthukaruppan
denies Narayanan was harassed. "Narayanan was neither summoned nor
interrogated." But the dead man's friends and neighbours, who are
mortally scared to be named, say the family was disturbed by the police
many times recently. They say he was not seen for more than a week before
the suicide. In his note Narayanan mentions he had written a letter to
Jayalalitha 10 days ago suspecting foul play by the police.
The heroin scare has been heightened with the
recent arrest of Jayalalitha's disowned foster son V.N. Sudhakaran and
former aide V. Bhaskaran. A complaint of criminal assault was filed against
the two, but the "recovery" of heroin from Sudhakaran's residence
has put him behind bars. The police claim to have recovered a pistol and
16 kg of heroin-later corrected to 16 gm-from his residence on June 13.
Charges under NDPS were later added to the case against Sudhakaran, who
is said to have offended the Amma in more than one way after her 1996
arrest.
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