This is an archive article published on January 4, 2024
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Tamil Nadu police officers suspended for taking BJP membership while on duty

Annamalai claimed that the officers did not enroll themselves, but were just conducting inquiry with the representatives of the stall.

Tamil Nadu police department has suspended two of its officers based on reports that they had enrolled themselves as BJP members while being on bandobast duty for state BJP president K Annamalai’s En Mann En Makkal rally.Tamil Nadu police department has suspended two of its officers based on reports that they had enrolled themselves as BJP members while being on bandobast duty for state BJP president K Annamalai’s En Mann En Makkal rally.
Written by: Janardhan Koushik
2 min readChennaiJan 4, 2024 04:31 PM IST First published on: Jan 4, 2024 at 01:23 PM IST

Tamil Nadu police department has suspended two of its officers based on reports that they had enrolled themselves as BJP members while being on bandobast duty for state BJP president K Annamalai’s En Mann En Makkal rally.

According to the police, the officials – sub-inspector K Rajendran and special sub-inspector A Karthikeyan – had enrolled themselves into BJP virtually at one of the stalls set up during Annamalai’s yatra in Nagapattinam district on December 27.

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Both the officers attached to the Velipalayam police station in the district got the membership by giving a missed call to a phone number, the police said.

The video of the incident has since gone viral with netizens urging the authorities to take action against the officials.

According to sources, as soon as the incident came to the notice of he Nagapattinam Superintendent of Police Harsh Singh, the officials who were found to have violated the Tamil Nadu Subordinate Police Officers Conduct Rules during inquiry were transferred to the Armed Reserve within 36 hours.

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Further, Singh ordered a departmental inquiry by the Deputy Superintendent of Police. Following the inquiry, based on the recommendation of SP Singh, T Jayachandran, Thanjavur Range Deputy Inspector General of Police placed both the officials under suspension.

Meanwhile, Annamalai issued a statement on Wednesday claiming that the officers did not enroll themselves but were just conducting inquiry with the representatives of the stall over what was happening.

“It is a common practice for police officers to conduct inquiries in crowded public spaces. It is saddening to see both the officials being suspended without having conducted any inquiry. This will not only affect them, but also their families,” Annamalai said, adding such action will discourage youngsters from aspiring to join the police force.

Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over... Read More

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