http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/tn-ministers-watch-cop-dies-640 TN ministers watch as cop dies January 9th, 2010 DC Correspondent
Two DMK ministers in Tamil Nadu, M.R.K. Paneerselvam and T.P.M. Maideen Khan, have come under fire from rights activists after TV footage showed them watching as police sub-inspector Vetrivel lay dying in a pool of blood on the road. The sub-inspector, grievously injured by a gang at Abasamudram, in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, later bled to death. He was not even the intended target of the gang. The video showed the ministers standing barely 10 metres from the dying man. It also showed the gasping victim of the brutal attack pleading for water. One of the ministers’ personal security officers gave him some water, from a distance. All this time senior officials accompanying the minister were busy making phone-calls to inform the police even though there were uniformed men present with the ministers’ convoy, as the footage showed. If a car in the convoy had been immediately used to transport the man to a hospital, it would, perhaps, have saved his life. Even as the footage caused public outrage, M.R.K. Paneerselvam defended himself, claiming he had done “everything in his power” to save the wounded man. “I called the 108 ambulance service as the man, whose neck was slit, urgently needed oxygen. I also asked a doctor who was accompanying us to attend to the wounded man,” Mr Paneerselvam told this newspaper, adding he had even arranged for one of his convoy vehicles to transport Vetrivel to the Tirunelveli GH after waiting for the ambulance. Human rights activists, however, have condemned the “callous attitude” of the ministers in the face of an injured man. “The ministers should have put their power into use to save the dying man immediately, it was not right of them to simply stand and watch,” said A. Marx, a human rights activist in Chennai. Police sub-inspector Vetrivel’s life could have been saved if the ministers and officials present at the spot had rushed him to a hospital immediately. State health minister M.R.K. Paneerselvam, however, offered his shawl to staunch the blood from the policeman’s wounds. As the SI pleaded for help, district collector M. Jeyaraman was busy informing the district police superintendent and the DIG about the incident on the phone. State health secretary V.K. Subburaj offered water to the injured man, but kept the bottle high up. The SI lay there, pleading, begging for help, till the police reached the spot and rushed him to a hospital. But by then it was too late; he had died of loss of blood. The gang which murdered the Alwarkurichi sub-inspector on Thursday afternoon is suspected to be hiding in Chennai or Madurai. The police has formed seven special teams to apprehend them. The six-member gang had mistaken Vetrivel for Kadyam station sub-inspector, Sivasubramanian. Investigators found that the killers were relatives of the Kadyam SI’s wife, Sivagami, from Vellur village, near Srivaikundam in Thoothukudi district. A Suzuki motorcycle (TN 72-X-444) abandoned at Manjapuli, a village near the murder scene, was found to belong to Kandhasamy, the brother-in-law of Sivasubramanian, the real target of the gang. A police team rushed to Kandhasamy’s native village, Vellur, and found that most male members of Sivagami’s family were missing. The police has detained Sivagami, the SI’s mother-in-law and three more men from Vellur for interrogation. On the direction of deputy inspector-general (Tirunelveli range) Kannappan, the Tirunelveli district police constituted four special teams and the Thoothukudi district police formed four teams to catch the attackers. Tirunelveli superintendent of police Ashra Garg said the special teams were on the lookout for the culprits in Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kovilpatti, Srivaikundam, Madurai, Virudhunagar and Chennai. Meanwhile, a host of police officers, including Mr Kannappan and Mr Garg, paid their last respects to Vetrivel, who was buried at his wife’s native village of Mullikulam, near Sankarankoil in the district. -- J.Prabakar, Thoothukudi.--
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