‘Include senior IPS officer’s name in FIR in land grab case’

Arappor Iyakkam makes representation to Home Secretary, DGP

Arappor Iyakkam has urged authorities, including the Home Secretary and the Director General of Police, to add a senior police officer’s name in a first information report (FIR) registered by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) against police officials for kidnapping and torturing a businessman to appropriate his properties.

The CB-CID registered the FIR on 10 persons, including six police officials and an Assistant Commissioner in June. Demanding a fair investigation, Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor, Arappor Iyakkam, said the organisation accessed a copy of the complaint dated July 12 lodged by the victim, Rajesh,

“A simple reading of the letter sends shockwaves of how certain police officials, responsible for upholding law and order, have prima facie acted as henchmen of land grabbers by involving themselves in extreme acts of rowdyism. The complaint is about how Mr. Rajesh and his family were kidnapped, tortured and threatened several times by the police, and how his lands were grabbed and registered in the name of a few individuals in the year 2019,” he said.

The representation of Arappor Iyakkam said apart from those against whom the complaint had been lodged, it was extremely important to note that a senior IPS officer, R. Dhinakaran, was named in the complaint for his active role in the offence. “It is shocking that the CB-CID, which registered the FIR and is investigating, has not included Mr. Dhinakaran’s name in the FIR or the additional FIR in spite of his name featuring in the complaint,” it read. The Arappor Iyakkam said, “It is therefore important to immediately add the official’s name in the additional FIR, suspend the officer until the investigation concludes.”

Pointing out that the police personnel involved were not arrested for more than a year after the victim complained to the Police Commissioner’s Office in February 2020, Mr. Jayaram said the then Commissioner should have immediately initiated a FIR and arrested those involved.

“Apart from criminal action, it is also important for the Home Department to take departmental action against these police officials. Departmental action should not only cover officials responsible for the commission, but also include those responsible for acts of omission,” he said in the representation.

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