Chennai: Idol Wing police continues to hog headlines and this time, it's for an extremely odd reason-13 men in this wing on Tuesday morning lodged a damning complaint with the Director General of Police accusing their chief, Inspector General of Police Pon Manickavel, of harassing them if they did not carry out his instructions to file false cases. They all wanted to be transferred out.
Soon afterwards, the DGP office issued a press statement saying the petition from the 13 men, led by an ADSP, had alleged that Special Officer Pon Manickavel was forcing them to file false cases even without proper evidence and heaped abuse if they failed to oblige him. These men wanted to be transferred out of the idol wing, said the statement, adding, "appropriate action on these petitions is under consideration".
The complaint from his own team has caused huge discomfort for Manickavel, who has been pursuing several old and difficult idol theft cases with much vigour-making big seizures and effecting sensational arrests of suspected thieves/smugglers and temple officials, such as HR&CE additional commissioner N Thirumagal on December 16 -thanks to the big backing from the Madras High Court that had even granted him extension of term as the head of the wing as its Special Officer, even after his retirement from police service on November 30. In this process, the officer had to fight not just the temple robbers but also the government as he turned to the High Court complaining that the administration was not giving him enough staff and logistical support; the regime on its part accused him of functioning in unilateral manner without consulting superiors. The court sided with Manickavel, telling him he was doing his job as the head of the idol wing police on court orders and so he must keep only the court informed, none
else.It is against such a murky backdrop has this 'complaint of 13' popped up now. Questions arose in the media and other circles if the bombshell of petition had some 'blessings from the top' as the complaint was not only received real quickly at the police headquarters, the complainants were also permitted to hold a press conference immediately afterwards for 'maximum impact' on TV channels. It now remains to be seen what 'appropriate' action the police top brass would take on the 'petition of 13' considering that the High Court is holding a torchlight on the idol wing and an umbrella over Pon Manickavel.
