Engineer’s suicide: Former Tamil Nadu minister Krishnamoorthy gets conditional bail

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to former Tamil Nadu agriculture minister S S (Agri) Krishnamoorthy, who is an accused in a case relating to the suicide of senior agricultural engineer S Muthukumarasamy.
According to the bail conditions, Krishnamoorthy, the Kalasapakkam MLA, should daily sign at the office of the deputy superintendent office, CB-CID, Chennai metro unit II, till further orders of the court.
When his petition came up for hearing before Justice K Kalyanasundaram on Wednesday, his side said the prosecution had opposed his earlier petitions stating that they had to record statements from the witnesses. Now, as the petitioner has been in jail for almost two months, he should be released on bail.
The judge then asked state public prosecutor (PP) S Shanmuga Velayutham about the investigation. The PP said the statement of the former minister's personal assistant, Poovaiah, suggested the role of Krishnamoorthy in the case and the investigation agency was waiting for the details of phone calls made between the deceased and others.
Following this, the judge granted conditional bail to the petitioner.
The former minister was arrested along with agriculture chief engineer M Senthil on April 4. They have been lodged in the Palayamkottai Central Prison since April 5.
Muthukumarasamy committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving train at Thatchanallur on February 20 as he was allegedly under pressure from the former agriculture minister and his associates over the appointments of seven drivers in Tirunelveli.
Krishnamoorthy filed the bail petition last week. This was the fourth time when the former minister filed his bail petition. He had earlier filed bail pleas – once before the principal district and sessions court in Tirunelveli and twice before the Madras high court. However, all those petitions had been dismissed.