‘Agri’ S.S. Krishnamoorthy, who held various portfolios in the State government since 2011, was removed from the Council of Ministers on Saturday.
Housing Minister R.Vaithilingam has been given the Agriculture portfolio as an additional charge that Mr. Krishnamoorthy finally held. Governor K. Rosaiah accepted the recommendations made by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, according to an official communication from the Raj Bhawan.
Mr. Krishnamoorthy was on Thursday removed as AIADMK’s Tiruvannamalai South District Secretary by party supremo Jayalalithaa.
The Minister’s removal from the key party post and eventually from the Cabinet comes in the wake of Opposition parties’ allegations that he exerted pressure on an Agriculture Department engineer who committed suicide.
There was a demand for a probe by the CBI into the incident. The Hindu on February 23 reported the suicide of engineer S. Muthukumarasamy, who fell in front of a speeding train and the police investigation, which revealed that the official took the extreme step under pressure from a “highly influential person.”
While the engineer wanted to recruit drivers from the seniority list from the Employment Office, the “highly influential person” had wanted him to consider another “list of selected candidates,” police sources said.
