THOOTHUKUDI:An inspector attached to Ettayapuram police station and a constable attached to Vilathikulam police station were placed under suspension for allegedly helping an accused in a major robbery case.
The suspended inspector has been identified as Ramakrishnan and the constable as Sathyamoorthy. Based on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Police Ashwin Kotnis, the Tirunelveli DIG, Murugan, issued the suspension orders on the inspector. The suspension order for the constable was issued by the SP himself.
On September 23, 2014, when Pandian, a sand quarry manager, was returning home by his car late at night with Rs 28 lakh cash collected from the quarry in Keezhanambipuram near Vilathikulam, he was attacked and robbed by a six-member gang .
The incident took place at Muthalapuram bridge near Ettayapuram on the Thoothukudi-Madurai National Highway.
After attacking him, the gang had dropped Pandian near Pandhalkudi, Virudhunagar district and disappeared in the darkness.
A case was registered at Ettayapuram police station and three special teams were formed to apprehend the gang.
So far only one of the accused in the case has been caught while the remaining five accused are still absconding.
Reliable sources in the police department claimed that the movement of police teams was regularly passed on to the accused while they were hiding in Chennai and the policemen were puzzled how the secret departmental directives got leaked to the accused.
The sources also claimed that the movement of the special team was also regularly passed on to the accused.
Police deduced that some insiders played the role of informers for the suspects. When police probed the sequence of events and traced their movements it was found that the two policemen helped the accused evade the police raids, the sources claimed.