The September 22 murder of Sasikumar, a leader of the Hindu Munnani political party in Coimbatore that triggered communal violence, has been transferred to the Crime Investigation Division (CID) of the police.
This was done on the demands of Hindu Munnani leaders and Sasikumar’s family. His wife Yamuna also attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills but was taken to hospital where she is recovering.
Meanwhile, the CID has failed to solve the mystery of the August 8 robbery in which soiled currency notes worth Rs50mn was stolen from the Salem Express train.
The robbers cleverly cut open a hole on the roof of the train carriage after it reached Chennai and was parked for the night at Chetpet railway yard. The CID confirmed this, but could not find any fingerprints or other evidence.
Five of family die in road crash near Coimbatore
Five members of a family died and three were injured when their car crashed into a stationary truck on the Pollachi-Udumalpet highway near Coimbatore last week.
The dead included Nataraja Chettiar, his two adult sons, a daughter-in-law and 10-year-old granddaughter Srinithi. Police suspect that either of the sons, who had been driving, dozed off at the wheel causing the pre-dawn accident.
The family was returning from the temple town of Rameshwaram.
In a separate incident, seven people died and 23 were injured when their Dharmapuri-bound bus collided with a truck at Thoppur about 40km from Salem. The occupants of the bus had been returning from a temple festival.
Heritage Nilgiri Library renovated
The heritage section of the 150-year-old Nilgiri Library in Ooty was restored with the help of the government-run Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) recently.
INTACH spent about Rs500,000 for the project and re-arranged the books that had been remarkably well-preserved though the building’s gothic architecture and walls had become mildewed. Among the 30,000 books are journals by British colonials, history of the local hill tribes and other subjects. The library also has rare pictures including one of Queen Victoria presented to Ooty in 1887 for her golden jubilee.
Student drowns in swimming pool
A Class XI student drowned at a public swimming pool after suffering seizures in Periamet area in Chennai last week.
Though life guards managed to pull him out Naveen died on way to hospital. A police case has been registered against the private company that had been contracted to maintain the pool. The company claimed that it had posted three life guards and strict instructions banning visitors with health problems.
Local body polls on Oct 17, 19
State election commissioner P Seetharaman has announced that local body polls will be held in Tamil Nadu on October 17 and 19.
Nominations can be filed until tomorrow and votes will be counted on October 21. The model code of conduct to prevent election malpractices was imposed from September 27.
Ancient metallurgy unit excavated
An ancient metallurgy unit has been excavated at Porpanaikottai village in Pudukottai, about 400km south west of Chennai.
A local archaeology team found a row of 14 furnaces separated by 5m on about 40 acres inside the Porpanaikottai forest. They dated the site to be about 2,500 years old.
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