DT Exclusive: Custodial torture probe fallout worsens, TN SHRC chief sends off senior IAS official
In a demi official letter to the Public Department Secretary dated October 24, the SHRC chief, retired judge S Manikumar, the former Chief Justice of Kerala High Court, asked secretary R Kannan to be relieved immediately
State Human Rights Commission
CHENNAI: The simmering tension between the State Human Rights Commission chairperson and officials flared sharply on Thursday after the panel chief asked the secretary – a senior IAS official who took charge only on Wednesday – to leave the commission immediately.
In a demi official letter to the Public Department Secretary dated October 24, the SHRC chief, retired judge S Manikumar, the former Chief Justice of Kerala High Court, asked secretary R Kannan to be relieved immediately. Kannan, the managing director of ELCOT, was given additional charge as SHRC secretary.
In the official communication to the Public Department Secretary, justice Manikumar mentioned the DO letter and recommended that “the Secretary (FAC), SHRC-TN to be relieved from the SHRC-TN forthwith for the reasons cited” in that letter.
The tussle, which has the chairperson on the one side and the State police headquarters and the secretary on the other, is mainly over the transfer of DSP M Sundaresan, who submitted a preliminary report that prima facie established that the Kancheepuram police illegally detained and brutally assaulted suspects in the murder of a retired police inspector, leading to their hospitalisation.
The police HQ had earlier transferred Sundaresan, a move that the new secretary reportedly tried to implement as soon as he took charge as SHRC secretary on Wednesday. But the chairperson nixed the move and issued an order stating that Sundaresan would remain in the commission.
According to sources whom DT Next spoke to, the tussle became bigger after the secretary allegedly made some unsavoury comments inside the SHRC office on Wednesday, which came to justice Manikumar’s attention.
In the order on Thursday, he also directed the Investigation, Legal, Accounts and Admin wings of the SHRC that all files should be routed only after his approval. "Office is directed to route all the files only after getting the approval from the Chairman, SHRC-TN. This order only be strictly implemented," he said in his communication.