Officer’s bribe talk goes viral, transferred

Hours later, the officer, C S Muthalagu, the Assistant Commissioner of Teynampet, was among the 55 DSPs/ ACs who were transferred late on Monday evening.

In the audio clip, a person identified as the brother of Sundar, a suspect who was arrested in the first week of May in Chennai along with ‘Rocket’ Raja, is heard offering to pay Rs 5 lakh to the assistant commissioner, who oversaw the probe into the kidnap case. The officer replies that the amount would not even cover his tea expense.

After the clip went viral, attracting severe criticism against the force, city police ordered an internal inquiry into the incident.

“We too came to know about it. An internal inquiry has been ordered into the whole episode,” a senior police officer said.

The conversations, audio clips of which were shared widely in WhatsApp groups on Monday, were reportedly recorded in February, when the police were hunting for the suspects linked to the kidnap of RSV Karthik Sethupathi, the heir of Ramanad estate. 

While talking to the brother of the wanted accused, the officer is heard saying he was ready to help them because they belonged to the same caste.

At that time, the police were on the lookout for Sundar for his alleged role in abducting Karthik. It was a team from organised crime intelligence unit, which picked up the suspects from a hotel in Teynampet. OCIU is said to have tracked them by monitoring the officer’s mobile phone.

The gang was upset with the officer for not preventing the arrests despite collecting money.