CPM seeks withdrawal of cases against VAO and action against police personnel
According to the CPM, police personnel then attempted to detain him under the Goondas Act, a move abandoned only after party district leaders approached the District Collector.
CPM state secretary P Shanmugam
CHENNAI: CPM state secretary P Shanmugam on Tuesday appealed to Chief Minister MK Stalin to intervene in the case of a village administrative officer (VAO) who, he said, had been subjected to sustained harassment for acting against sand smuggling in Pudukkottai district.
In his letter, Shanmugam said Jayaravivarma of Vandarakkottai revenue village had been serving as the VAO of Kovilur since 2015 and had taken consistent steps to curb sand theft in the region.
His actions, undertaken at the direction of the tahsildar, had led to repeated reprisals. He was arrested three times and jailed twice, the first instance arising from a seizure of sand and a JCB machine linked to a smuggling group in Vallathirakkottai.
Though he produced the official order authorising the seizure, the police arrested him and registered a case. The tahsildar later appeared at the police station and confirmed that the VAO had acted as instructed, and the court subsequently accepted this and discharged him.
According to the CPM, police personnel then attempted to detain him under the Goondas Act, a move abandoned only after party district leaders approached the District Collector. The VAO was later suspended and, from 2022 onwards, denied a subsistence allowance, except for eight months.
Shanmugam alleged that in February 2023, police personnel unlawfully detained the VAO, planted packets on him and filed ganja cases, with the arresting inspector acting as both complainant and investigating officer. The matter is now before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. On November 12, Vallathirakkottai police also booked him under Section 110 and added his name to the rowdy list.
Shanmugam said a sincere officer from a Scheduled Caste community had been pushed into severe mental agony for performing his duties. He sought the withdrawal of all fabricated cases, action against police personnel who misused their authority, reinstatement of the VAO, payment of all pending subsistence allowance and a CB-CID probe into the sequence of events.