KOCHI: VR Lakshminarayanan, one of the most distinguished IPS officers in the country and brother of renowned jurist Justice VR Krishna Iyer, passed away in Chennai on Sunday. He was 91. A 1951 batch IPS officer, Lakshminarayanan began his career as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Madurai and rose up the ranks to become Tamil Nadu Director General of Police.
The high-point of Lakshminarayanan’s career came when he arrested former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the orders of the Morarji Desai Government as joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) immediately after the Emergency. Reportedly he had requested Rajiv Gandhi to convince his mother to surrender by famously saying: “I don’t want the rude hands of a policeman to be laid on the sacred person of a lady who was a former Prime Minister and who also happens to be Nehru’s daughter.”
When Indira Gandhi, finally, came out from her room and asked, “Where are the handcuffs”, he said: “I had served you loyally and well and got two medals from your hands for meritorious and distinguished service,” adding that he had “since become lazy and forgotten to bring the handcuffs”.He is survived by son Suresh and daughters Usha Ravi and Rama Lakshminarayanan. The funeral will be held in Chennai on Tuesday.