In a major crackdown against erring police officers, the Election Commission placed under suspension a Deputy Superintendent of Police and two Inspectors here on Tuesday.
The suspended officers are Oddanchatram DSP Gunasekaran and Inspectors Arumugam, attached to Palani station, and Pon Raghu of Sempatti police station.
Official sources said that the DSP was earlier advised to join duty in Theni. The suspension orders were served on him later.
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They stated that the police officers did not take action against DMK functionaries who refused to allow monitoring officials to perform their duty and locked them up in a room at Akkaraipatti recently. When a flying squad led by Tahisildar Rajendran raided the houses of Mani and Sembulingam, DMK party member at Akkaraipatti on April 7 and seized Rs.1 lakh, a group of DMK functionaries and union level party leaders locked them in a house for more than six hours demanding return of the seized money.
The suspended DSP and Sempatti Inspector rushed to the spot and tried to rescue them. The gang refused to oblige. After hectic parleys, the group released them after the officials returned the cash. Sempatti police registered a case against the party workers. But no one was arrested in this connection. In the meanwhile, one of the party leaders obtained anticipatory bail.
Acting on a complaint filed by the Opposition citing wilful delay on the part of the police in arresting the accused, the EC suspended the DSP and Sempatti Inspector.
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In another incident, Palani Inspector reportedly allowed the vehicles of DMK party workers to ply without checking them recently.