Davidson Devasirvatham, new Intelligence chief

AIADMK government had brought in KN Sathyamurthy, who was earlier posted as the Central Zone IG in Tiruchy ahead of the crucial Assembly elections, by shifting out Davidson Devasirvatham in December 2015. 

Davidson Devasirvatham also came to adverse notice of the government for a wrong intelligence input that made the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to expel MLA R Nataraj from the party. It was alleged that an anti-government speech was wrongly attributed to R Nataraj, which in reality was made by one of his namesakes. 

Following his revolt, O Paneerselvam was not happy with the performance of the intelligence chief and wanted the official out of the important wing. Leader of Opposition, MK Stalin had also demanded the transfer of Sathyamurthy after the failure of state intelligence to handle the Jallikattu protests which ended on a violent note. Home Secretary Apoorva Varma issued the orders of transfer on Monday late evening. No fresh posting has been given to Sathyamurthy, who was transferred out. 

Meanwhile, the Monday turned out to be a day of routine work for the cops as Chennai city police got back to their routine of providing fullfledged security for the Chief Minister’s convoy, especially in the absence of the security chief of CM security.

Commissioner of Police S George ensured that there were no shortcomings in the security arrangements for the caretaker CM, who went to Secretariat for the first time after he launched a coup against the party’s general secretary and CM aspirant and V K Sasikala. 

Police officers anticipated some trouble on the route of the CM following alerts from the intelligence section that some Sasikala supporters may try to obstruct the convoy on South Canal Bank Road. 

Knowing well that any untoward incident could worsen the crisis in the state, police evinced utmost care in providing security to the CM and the commissioner ordered that an official in the rank of SP or above should pilot the convoy with strength and foil any attempt to disrupt the movement of the CM’s convoy to Fort St. George. However, the situation was different on Monday and some officials connected that to the meeting of DGP, COP and other senior police officials had with the Governor. 

Joint Commissioner of police, South, TS Anbu went as a pilot in front of the convoy from Greenways Road to Gandhi Statue and joint commissioner East, S Manoharan took charge from Gandhi Statue.