Chief Minster Jayalalithaa has directed the Special Investigation Division of the Tamil Nadu police to expedite the probe in the sensational murder of Bharatiya Janata Party State general secretary Auditor Ramesh in Salem and Hindu Munnani state secretary Vellaiyappan in Vellore this month.
Following this, Director-General of Police K. Ramanujam along with DGP (Crime Branch CID) Narinder Pal Singh visited Salem to review the progress in the investigation.
After making a case-by-case analysis of murders or assaults where Hindu leaders were targeted in the recent past, Ms. Jayalalithaa told top officials who met her in Kodanad on Friday to take expeditious action in the Salem and Vellore murder cases, police sources said. While the SID is focussing on solving the two murders, special teams of the State intelligence and CBCID launched a manhunt to track down ‘Police’ Fakruddin, Bilal Malik and Panna Ismail who were allegedly involved in the plot to blow up the convoy of BJP leader L.K. Advani near Tirumangalam in Madurai district in October 2011.
Sources in the intelligence agencies said a breakthrough was likely in the murder of Hindu Munnani leader Vellaiyappan in Vellore. “We are following some specific clues that might lead to the arrest of the suspects soon. All possible angles were probed in detail and we are ruling out one after the other,” a police official said.
Parrying questions on whether a communal angle was suspected, he said police were leaving no stone unturned and the investigation was directly under the supervision of Mr Ramanujam.
Investigators were making enquiries with some suspects in Madurai, Dindigul and Tirunelveli districts who had come to adverse notice on earlier occasions. “We are also questioning some inmates lodged in high security blocks in central prisons across the State,” the official added.
In Salem, CB-CID Inspector General M.N. Manjunatha, who is leading the probe by the Special Investigation Division (SID), told reporters that the investigation was progressing in the right direction. The SID was verifying information it had received and the details would be disclosed at the right time. “No arrests have been made so far, but we will get a result soon.”
