TIRUNELVELI
The arrest of a constable attached to Thisaiyanvilai police station for allegedly assisting illicit sand miners has brought to light the nexus between some police personnel and politically powerful people illegally quarrying sand in the district.
When Uvari police recently arrested N. Chinnadurai of Urumankulam, he told the interrogators that he was bribing a few police officers through constable Siva, who is the driver for Thisaiyanvilai Inspector Rani. As the police corroborated it with WhatsApp messages shared between them and the phone calls, Siva was arrested on Tuesday night and placed under suspension.
The police are on the lookout for three more constables.
The illicit sand miners went to the extent of murdering Special Branch constable S. Jagadish Durai on May 7.
When a police team from Chinnakovilankulam police station was on patrol in the early hours of Monday, it found a few persons illegally quarrying sand from Senthatti Odai and loading it in a tractor.
The police detained the tractor, but the sand miners reportedly managed to escape. When the police informed the office of Sankarankovil Deputy Superintendent of Police, they were directed to hand over the vehicle to Sankarankovil Tahsildar . Subsequently, Special Sub-Inspector Murugan and Head Constable Kamaraj handed over the vehicle at the taluk office.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer from Sankarankovil sub-division realised that the sand miners were close relatives of a Sankarankovil-based politician. He forced the police personnel to apologise to the politician, it is said.
Meanwhile, the sand miners, on the instructions of the politician, took away the vehicle from the taluk office. Shocked over this development, Mr. Rajendran filed a police complaint seeking action against those who had illegally taken away the vehicle. But the police did not register an FIR.
When Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish came to know of the matter, she asked the police to register the FIR and arrest the illicit sand miners. After some police personnel allegedly passed on this information to the local politician, some “unidentified persons” brought the tractor back to the taluk office on Tuesday.
“Subsequently, Mr. Rajendran filed a fresh petition in which he sought to drop action on his complaint,” Superintendent of Police P. Ve. Arunshakthikumar told The Hindu.
On the intervention of a few officials, the tractor was released after a fine was paid.