Don Sridhar’s cook brought under probe

A senior TN police official on Wednesday clarified that there was no case registered against Devendran by the police, but LOC was issued because he was reportedly travelling with the wanted mafioso.

Devendran, a resident of Pillaiyapalayam in Kancheepuram, has been with Sridhar for more than 25 years. “Sridhar doesn’t trust anybody other than Devendran when it comes to food. Devendran has to check the don’s meal and make sure nobody has poisoned it,” police sources said. 

“Devendran had been with his boss for the last few years and we expect him to know about Sridhar after he left TN in the year 2013. Devendran is also expected to throw some light on the last few hours of Sridhar and what possibly triggered the don’s suicide,” the official said. 

“It is not clear why he committed suicide. Some say he killed himself because he lost a lot of money in gambling, which is difficult to believe. But it is clear he was thinking of suicide. On the day, he called me and asked about the possibilities of transporting his body to Chennai if he dies in Cambodia. I discouraged him from talking such things. But I never expected him to take the extreme step,” told Sridhar’s lawyer Purushothaman, when DT Next contacted him. 

The lawyer also added that Sridhar’s family was not informed about the whereabouts of Devendran. On Wednesday after DIG office was intimated of the detention, a special team from Kancheepuram left for Bengaluru and Devendran was brought to Kancheepuram for further investigation. 

Sridhar’s son Santhosh, who attended the funeral of his father, had left to UK to continue his studies. Dhanalakshmi, Sridhar’s daughter, approached the court to bring the body of her father from Cambodia after he died there without proper identification papers, now resides in Kancheepuram.

Though the Kancheepuram police had collected samples and fingerprints from the body of Sridhar to confirm his identity, the DNA test is yet to be completed. “Fingerprints taken from the body tallied with his prints taken years ago. The DNA test is delayed because it will be done by the forensic lab based on a court order,” a senior police official said.