COIMBATORE: Family of traffic constable R Selvaraj, who was murdered on November 29, 1997, resulting in a communal riot that left 24 dead, is yet to get a job in police department on the compassionate grounds nearly two decades after the incident.
S Jayanthi, wife of Selvaraj, appears to be suffering from the trauma even now. With no hope of surviving on the family pension alone, she has sought a job for her daughter with the police department on compassionate grounds.
On November 29, 1997, traffic constable Selvaraj was on duty regulating the traffic at the Big Bazaar street, when eight unknown assailants stabbed him to death. Following the murder, communal riot broke out in Coimbatore and police opened fire at the mob in Ukkadam. The riot claimed the lives of 24 people in the city. Selvaraj, at the time of his murder, was considered a newly married man and had a 10-month-old baby girl. Immediately after, Jayanthi took her daughter Lavanya and shifted to her parents house in a village in Madurai.
The 10-month-old baby is now a 21-year-old and has completed her BSc. Lavanya is pursuing her MSc in a private college in Madurai. “After his death, we immediately returned to our home town and survived with the bridal jewels of 15 sovereign gold and managed for a few months.
Then, the Department officials offered a job, but I was not in a position to take a decision then as my daughter was an infant. As days passed by, I was unable to recover from the trauma and fell sick,” says Jayanthi. Jayanthi has applied with the City police seeking for a job for her daughter Lavanya on compassionate grounds and she has been informed that the officials has forwarded her application to Chennai.
Treating it as a special case, city police have said that they forwarded the application to the Director General of Police (DGP) office, which would take the final call on this matter. When ‘Express’ reached out to DGP TK Rajendran, he has said that he will look into her application.