3 of family held in Chennai inspector’s death in Pali

JAIPUR: The Pali police on Friday arrested three people in connection with the death of Chennai police inspector S Periyapandian who had died on Wednesday when his team stormed the hideout in Pali to arrest prime suspects in a ₹1 crore heist at a Chennai jewellery outlet on November 16.

Jaitaran circle officer Virendera Singh informed TOI that cops arrested Tejaram, his wife Vidya Rani and their daughter Subna for attacking the Chennai cops. "They were present inside the hideout which Chennai cops had stormed. Even before cops could corner the prime suspect Nathuram Jat, these people began pelting stones at cops which triggered a scuffle and the entire operation quickly went haywire," he said.

Under fierce attack from occupants of the house, the Chennai police's operation ended in a chaotic scuffle in which one inspector T M Munisekar dropped his service pistol. Before cops could retrieve the firearm, they heard a gunshot and the inspector was lying in pool of blood.

Pali SP Deepak Bhargav said that trip have been booked in multiple sections of the IPC, including 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) 307 (attempt to murder).

The sources in Rajasthan police informed TOI that interrogation with the trio may help police recreate the crime scene to ascertain what actually transpired which led to the inspector's death. The police had claimed that there were about eight to seven people present inside the house on Wednesday night. The prime accused, however, remains off the hook.

Also, the FSL teams from Jaipur surveyed the spot where the incident took place. "There is still ambiguity about how Periyapandian was shot. We hope that in coming days we will be able to unravel whether it was accidental fire or these people indeed snatched the weapon and killed him," the official informed TOI.

The source also said that Mukesh Jain, owner of Mahalakshmi Jewellery had accompanied the Chennai police team. According to the sources, the Jain reportedly flew with the police team and landed in Pali. Since he hailed from the same place, he hired a local informant to tip them off about the movements of Nathuram Jat.