An overseer in Rural Development Department, who had set himself afire on Sunday, died at Tiruvarur Medical College Hospital early on Monday. R. Muthukrishnan (38), in his dying declaration, has named Executive Engineer Senthil Kumar for causing mental agony.
Government employees here have demanded Mr. Kumar’s arrest. His whereabouts were not known till the evening.
When news about the contents of the dying declaration spread, Muthukrishnan’s relatives, office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association and the Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department Officials’ Association refused to accept the body and demanded the arrest of Mr. Kumar. The members staged demonstration in front of the Collectorate here.
Muthukrishnan, on death bed, deposed before Judicial Magistrate Kavitha that Mr. Kumar had been harassing him and called him a dunce when he was working in the Tiruvarur Collectorate.
Piqued at the invectives and “harassment,” Muthukrishnan sought and got a transfer to the Nannilam Panchayat Union six months ago as overseer. The victim also told the Magistrate that Mr. Kumar must be brought to book for continuing to cause mental agony even after the transfer.
Based on the deposition, the Koradachery police registered a case under Sec. 309 of the Indian Penal Code.
Collector M. Mathivanan and Superintendent of Police T. Jeyachandran held detailed discussions with the office-bearers of government employees’ associations later and promised action.
The body was collected by relatives for funeral.
Charges under Sec. 306
Later, police modified the FIR upping the level of charges by directly implicating Mr. Kumar by slapping charges under Sec. 306 of the IPC for causing the death of Muthukrishnan.
Earlier, they had levelled charges under Sec. 309.
