CHENNAI: The TN Uniformed Services Recruitment Board scam case took a new twist on Friday with the Madras High Court dropping the name of its DGP and chairman JK Tripathy from suo-motu contempt and instead replacing him with its member-secretary NK Senthamaraikannan, who is the IG of the board.
When the matter came up before Justice SM Subramaniam on Friday, it was asserted that Tripathy had no involvement in summoning the experts - Dr G Vijayakumar alias GV Kumar and D Murthy. He had no personal knowledge and not acquainted with any fact connected with the subject matter of the writ petition.
However, he assured the court that adequate steps will be taken to ensure that no such event happens in future. Beyond this, the Additional Advocate-General submitted that action will be taken in a swift manner in respect of the involvement of other officials of the board.
Considering the submission, as well as the affidavit filed by Tripathy, this court is inclined to drop his name and accordingly, substitute the name of Senthamarai Kannan, the member secretary/IG of Police of the board as a contemnor, the judge said.
Like-wise, counsel for the other two accused – D Murthy and GV Kumar – contended that they have not committed any offence of impersonation. In fact, Kumar’s signature in blank papers were obtained while he was in police custody.
Number of documents are produced before the court both by the board as well as by Murthy. However, they are to be investigated by the competent authority, they said.
“Under these circumstances, this court is of the considered opinion that the Commissioner of Police will be the appropriate authority to conduct or monitor the investigation personally and submit a report during the next hearing,” the judge said and hoped that the Commissioner would conduct an independent probe. Senior counsel for Murthy submitted that his client will cooperate in the enquiry and in investigation. So, he shall not be arrested until the report is filed by the Commissioner of Police, the judge said.