The suicide of Muthukumarasamy (57), an engineer working with the department of agriculture, Government of Tamil Nadu, on February 20 by jumping in front of a speeding train has shaken the O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK Government.
Though the party general secretary J Jayalalithaa suffered a crisis last September, when the Bangalore Special Court sentenced her to four years imprisonment and a fine of Rs100 crore in the disproportionate wealth case, the Government successfully faced the setback by electing Panneerselvam as Chief Minister and putting the administration back to normality in 24 hours. The suicide of Muthukumarasamy is attributed to pressure and threat exerted by some of the superior officers in his department, according to Vinod Sethuram (22), the younger son of the diseased engineer.
“last couple of months saw my father in an agitated state. He was getting frequent calls from some senior officers in the department. We do not know the reason and he did not tell us anything,” Vinod, a software engineer, told The Pioneer.
Colleagues and friends hold Muthukumarasamy in high esteem. “He is one of the very rare species of Government officials who are bold, upright, honest and straight forward. He is not the kind of person who will commit suicide,” said a colleague working with him for the last five years.
That the then Minister SS Krishnamoorthy had something to do with the suicide became clear when the party general secretary removed him from the post of Thiruvannamalai district secretary within days of Muthukumarasamy’s suicide. After three days, he was summarily dismissed from the Council of Ministers and is in political wilderness. Jayalalithaa is not one who guards tainted Ministers. Paramjyothi, the Tiruchi MlA, who won a by- election with record margin and was made Health Minister, was shown the door within weeks following an allegation by a woman that he was abusing her.
Krishnamoorthy was made Agriculture Minister in place of Chengottayyan who was ousted from the Ministry as a fall out of personal issues. It is interesting to note that Chengottayyan is a close confidante of Jayalalithaa. In Tamil Nadu, posts of the Ministers for finance, agriculture and power are reserved for the most trusted aides of the party leader.
The “unofficial charge” against Krishnamoorthy is that he pressurised Muthukumarasamy to appoint men of his choice as drivers in the department violating existing norms. But Muthukumaraamy rejected out rightly all kinds of pressure tactics. “A probe is on by the CB CID of Tamil Nadu police. let’s hope we will get justice,” said Vinod.
From Day One, the Opposition seized upon the matter and commenced agitations of all kinds. The DMK, struggling to survive in spite of the number of corruption cases against the party’s top leaders are on a blitzkrieg to put the Government in back foot.
There is a demand from many Opposition parties to hand over the probe to the CBI. It is a must for the AIADMK Government to come clean on this issue as election to the assembly is hardly 12 months away.