Rural police grill fake trainer’s assistant

Coimbatore: Police on Saturday interrogated Ashok of Pallapalayam in Erode, an accomplice of G Arumugam of Vandalur in Chennai, who claimed to be a trainer from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and conducted a disaster management drill at a private college in Coimbatore on Thursday, resulting in the death of a girl student.
Ashok, a supplier of packaged drinking water, was grilled at the Karunya Nagar police station.He told police that Arumugam used to pay him Rs 2,000 for assisting him during the drills.
Police also questioned three volunteers, including a girl student from Ramanathapuram district. “They are post graduation students. Arumugam had conducted disaster management drills at their colleges and had selected them as volunteers. He had issued identity cards to them and told them that they would get additional five marks in the TNPSC examination for working as volunteers. They had assisted him during drills conducted at several colleges,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, the judicial magistrate court -II here on Saturday remanded Arumugam in judicial custody till July 27.
The rural police have filed a petition seeking seven days police custody of Arumugam. “The petition will come up for hearing on Monday and after getting custody, we will take him to his office at Kelambakkam in Chennai to collect more details. We plan to seize documents kept at the office. We will also investigate his links with some NGOs,” a police officer said.
Kancheepuram district police have depute two police personnel at Arumugam’s office. Two special teams have been formed to conduct a probe into the fake documents and an NGO operated by Arumugam.
Meanwhile, a source from the Kovai Kalaimagal College of Arts and Science at Vellimalaipattinam near Narasipuram, where the incident happened, said that the college has sent a detailed report about it to The Bharathiar University. “It will be placed in front of the university’s convener committee,” he said.
“The college had conducted the disaster management programme following a direction from the UGC. As this was an NSS-related activity, the university would also forward the report to the NSS wing in Chennai,” he added.