Major political parties in Tamil Nadu have come out in the open against the acquittal of Agri SS Krishnamoorthy, the former Minister of Agriculture in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet, by the Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench from a corruption-cum-abetment-to-suicide case registered against him by the CB-CID wing of the State Police.
“The Government should appeal against this acquittal as the court has not taken note of the confessions made by Senthil, the superior officer of S Muthukumarasamy, the assistant executive engineer of the department of agriculture who committed suicide on February 20, 2015,” said S Ramadoss, the founder of the PMK. Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Ramadoss said Agri Krishnamoorthy’s role in the death of Muthukumarasamy has been proved beyond any doubt by the confessions of Senthil. The PMK leader said that Senthil had confessed to the Judicial Magistrate that he had called the victim minutes before the latter’s suicide. Senthil was arrested by the police in connection with the case.
The CB-CID charge was that Krishnamoorthy had demanded Rs 12.25 lakh as bribe from the deceased for having appointed seven drivers in his department. The CB-CID had also said that Krishnamoorthy had entered into a criminal conspiracy with some officials to collect a bribe of Rs 1.75 lakh each for the appointment of temporary drivers in his department. Justice VS Ravi on Tuesday had quashed the charges against Krishnamoorthy pointing out that there was no reliable evidence to prove the charges.
EVKS Elangovan, the president of the TNCC, said at Erode that the case should have been probed by the CBI instead of the Tamil Nadu Police. “From day one, the Congress has been demanding that the case should be handed over to the CBI since the CB CID is not an independent institution,” said Elangovan.