Former State Minister ‘Agri’ S.S. Krishnamoorthy, jailed on charges of corruption and abetting an engineer’s suicide, had demanded a bribe of Rs. 1.75 lakh for each of the posts of driver recruited in the department, Chief Engineer M. Senthil told Crime Branch-CID interrogators. Mr. Senthil was arrested with the ex-Minister on Saturday.
Sources in the investigating agency told The Hindu on Monday that Mr. Senthil, who also works in the Department of Agriculture Engineering, had conveyed to Assistant Executive Engineer Muthukumurasamy, who committed suicide on February 20 in Tirunelveli, that the then Minister (Mr. Krishnamoorthy) had asked for the money. Mr. Senthil made the confession when investigators confronted him with proof of his making calls to Muthukumarasamy. The Chief Engineer also admitted that he acted at the behest of the former Minister, the sources said.
However, Muthukumarasamy made the recruitment with the approval of the District Collector and sent the list of selected candidates by fax to the headquarters. He refused to collect money from the candidates. Even after the Chief Engineer warned Muthukumarasamy that he would have to face the consequences for refusing to toe the line, the official refused to budge.
On February 20, an Assistant Executive Engineer informed Mr. Senthil that Muthukumarasamy had committed suicide by jumping before a train in Thatchanallur in Tirunelveli. Mr. Senthil was asked to get a representation from the engineer’s family seeking government employment for one of Muthukumarasamy’s sons, citing their poverty as a reason. However, the family refused to give any such representation saying that they were not poor.
In his statement to the CB-CID, Mr. Krishnamoorthy apparently claimed that he never spoke to Muthukumarasamy on any occasion. As regards the appointment of drivers, he said had recommended to the government to enhance the salary of drivers from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 13,000 per month. Investigators said the statement of Mr. Senthil stood corroborated with the version of other witnesses, circumstances and material evidence in the case.
