No case registered against me by CBI: Former Idol Wing IGP

CHENNAI: Retired Police officer and former IGP of Idol Wing CID, AG Ponn Manickavel on Wednesday said that no case was registered against him by the CBI, as reported in several news channels and news outlets.

Some of the news outlets also mentioned that one of the officers under Ponn Manickavel, Ashok Natarajan has been included as a suspect in the case, which is also absolutely false, the former IGP (Inspector General of Police) said.

Ponn Manickavel said that the FIR (first information report) filed by the CBI is in fact a replication of a case filed by the Idol Wing CID in 2017, in connection with idol robbery at gun point by police officers.

“In that case, the preliminary report was filed by DSP Ashok Natarajan, based on which the FIR was filed. CBI has only replicated the contents of the original FIR. There is no mention of either my name or the DSP’s name in the suspects list,” Ponn Manickavel said.

He also addressed another insinuation by news outlets that his team allowed antiques dealer, Deenadayalan to escape and pointed out that Deenadayalan who was dealing with idols since 1958 was arrested first by his team in 2016.

“We seized about 830 idols from him. His trade was stopped. He was in jail for more than 90 days,” Ponn Manickavel said and added that chargesheet has not been filed in the case against Deendayalan, which is a question that has to be posed to his successors.

Commenting on the recent conviction of notorious idol smuggler, Subash Kapoor by a Tamil Nadu court, the former IG said that the efforts that led to his conviction largely goes to DSP Ashok Natarajan and his team, whom the government should encourage with accelerated promotions.