At least 200 police personnel attached to the Core Cell CID of the State police that guards VVIPs in the State have finally been recalled from Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden, the house of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and her other premises.
According to police sources, the specially trained commandos who form the security protocol of the Chief Minister, Governor and other VVIPs visiting the State stayed on in Poes Garden, Siruthavoor Estate (Kancheepuram district) and Kodanad Estate (Nilgiris district) even after the demise of Jayalalithaa in the first week of December last year. Jayalalithaa was a Z-Plus protectee with a National Security Guard (NSG) component. Though the NSG guards left Poes Garden after the death of the former Chief Minister, the Core Cell CID, a wing of the Security Branch CID of the State Intelligence, stayed back for more than two months.
Soon after taking charge as Inspector-General of Police (Intelligence), S. Davidson Devasirvatham ordered that all the Core Cell officials report back to the SBCID with immediate effect. All the weapons and security gadgets like metal detectors and jammers were also brought back. Inquiries revealed that the 200-plus security personnel worked on three shifts in Poes Garden, occupied by AIADMK interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala (since jailed) and her family members, though there was no specific instruction to that effect.
“They continued to stay on perhaps awaiting instructions to return to the headquarters. There seems to have been some communication gap. But it was so obvious that they were all there (in Poes Garden). After the conviction of Sasikala and others in the disproportionate assets case, the local police deployed on the roads leading to Veda Nilayam were withdrawn,” a senior police officer said.
All personal security officers provided to State Ministers and othersare also guarded by the Core Cell sleuths, sources added.
