CHENNAI: Most of the police officers who wielded enormous clout in the erstwhile DMK dispensation were sidelined with less glamourous postings in the reshuffle of IPS officers, announcement of which was made on Wednesday.
But there was one officer who actually got a leg up will now be the ears and eyes of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Call him Teflon T Rajendran if you will. As Chennai commissioner, he occupied the hot seat for two years when Karunanidhi was in power.
On Monday, when he was shifted to the post of ADGP prisons, it appeared that he too was out of favour. Fortune changed within 48 hours as he was appointed the State intelligence chief.
A 1983 batch IPS officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre, his non-partisan and clean image seems to have found favour with both governments. Suave, non-controversial and low-profiled, he was the quintessential intelligence man, having had a long stint in the State’s SB-CID in various capacities.
He was also the Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (South Zonal unit) at the height of the golden triangle drug trade in Asia.
Later as IG, Training, and additional director general of police (L&O), hecontinued to remain in the shadows until May 2009, when Chennai Commissioner K Radhakrishnan came under fire following the clash between lawyers and police on the Madras High Court campus.
The batchmates swapped places and Rajendran came into the media limelight.
The job of Chennai’s CoP is anything but cushy, for he is under constant scrutiny from all sides.
There are highs and lows, but Rajendran skillfully negotiated all that successfully. For example, he was hauled up by the media following the custodial death of Shanmugasundaram alias Rajan.
He allegedly murdered an aged couple at Panaiyur in 2009. He was arrested the same day and died hours later. Result: No case, no trial.
Add to that Rajendran’s frank admission that a “nominal amount” had been paid for the release of an abducted R Keertivasan (13) last year.
Only that the ‘nominal’ amount turned out to be a crore of rupees! The kidnappers were soon arrested and the ransom recovered.
What will remain as the high benchmark was the intense police-public interaction that marked his tenure.
As CoP, he threw open the gates of the commissionerate in Egmore to people of all walks and listened to their problems.
The final feather in his cap was the “incident-free” and “no-complaints” 2011 Assembly polls.