THOOTHUKUDI: Thoothukudi Chief Judicial Magistrate R Selvakumar on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Tirunelveli Social Justice and Human Rights Unit (SJ & HR) Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Thirumalai, for not appearing before the court in connection with pending cases despite repeated summons. Thirumalai has been currently placed under suspension in the Thoothukudi firing case.
Sources said that DSP Thirumalai, who was the then police inspector of Pudhukottai police station in Thoothukudi, detained activist Agri Paramasivam of Deivaseyalpuram on September 6, 2018 and registered an FIR under section 294(B), 307, and 506(ii) IPC charging him of attempting to murder a shop owner Ganesh earlier on the same day. The charge sheet of the case was filed at the court in 2020, said sources.
"The witnesses of the case had already denied the murder-attempt FIR as per their deposition. The then sub-inspector of police Maharaja also denied receiving the complaint given by Ganesh on the said day, contrary to the details mentioned in the FIR," sources added.
After hearing the deposition of the witnesses and the victim, the CJM summoned the police officer for cross-questioning. However, he did not show up before the court five times in a row. Subsequently, the CJM Selvakumar issued an arrest warrant against Thirumalai as he failed to appear before the court, said an official source.
Agri Paramasivam told TNIE that he was picked up by the police on September 6, and was beaten up brutally for circulating anti-Sterlite posts and statements regarding the developments on social media platforms post Thoothukudi firing. "The then inspector Thirumalai fabricated the attempt-to-murder case only to stifle my activism against Sterlite Copper. The police inspector also threatened the people who rented houses to me, eventually forcing me to move out of the city," he said.
It has also been alleged that Thirumalai was involved in various human rights violation cases, including the Thoothukudi police firing case and the arrest of research scholar Lois Sofia. Thirumalai is the only police officer whose name appears in the FIR registered by CBI probing the police firing incident.
Acting on the Aruna Jegadeesan commission's report about the Thoothukudi firing incident, the state government had placed him under suspension since last October.