Security for Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam was enhanced soon after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cadres stormed into his residence on the Greenways Road here on Saturday. Additional manpower drawn from the Chennai Police and ‘Core Cell’ of the Security Branch CID was deployed at ‘Thenpennai’, the official residence of the Chief Minister, police sources said.
Security personnel guarding the Chief Minister’s residence were caught off guard when the protesters stormed into the premises raising slogans demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the suicide of S. Muthukumarasamy, a senior engineer in the Agriculture Engineering Department, in Tirunelveli recently.
With about half-a-dozen police personnel at the main entrance, the protesters managed to force their way into the campus. “Since it was a Saturday, the AAP cadres might have expected the Chief Minister to be at home. But he was in the Secretariat at that time…,” a police official said.
Police and intelligence officials were under the impression that some All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party cadres were heading to the Chief Minister’s residence. “Soon after entering the residence, they wore their party caps and raised slogans. After a high-level discussion, the security for the Chief Minister was enhanced and additional manpower has been deployed at his residence,” the official said.
Mr. Panneerselvam’s residence still has his designation as the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu. Compared to the security cover accorded to AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa or the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, the present Chief Minister has just two or three vehicles in his convoy and a handful of personal security officers guarding him.
The suicide of Muthukumarasamy who jumped before a train triggered protests from political parties, which alleged that the official was under tremendous pressure to favour an “influential” person in the ruling party in the matter of recruitment of drivers in the department.
Days after the incident, Agriculture Minister ‘Agri’ S.S. Krishnamoorthy was stripped of his party post and dropped from the Council of Ministers.
The case was transferred to the Crime Branch CID for investigation.
