Madurai (Tamil Nadu): Mining baron P R Palanisamy was interrogated for nearly eight hours following allegations of human sacrifice against him by the Madurai police. A former employee, M Servarkodiyan has claimed that the group targeted mentally challenged people for human sacrifice and that he himself had brought some of the men from Pudukottai district.
A senior officer has said, “We gave him a long questionnaire. His replies were video recorded and transcribed as well. This is just a primary statement.” The police had exhumed skeletal remains of four bodies from a graveyard outside the district after Palanisamy's former driver alleged that he had got two men killed as human sacrifice and buried them 16 years ago. However, some locals have come forward to claim the bodies were of their dead relatives. The skeletal remains have been sent to the forensics.
A senior police officer, Vijayendra Bidari told the media, “We would also get DNA tests done so we could establish the identity of these skeletal remains and investigate accordingly if they do not match.” Investigators are also collecting details of missing persons to check if it corroborates with details the whistle blower has given. A case of unnatural death and destruction of evidence has been filed against four people with the mining major as the prime accused. Palanisamy was arrested in a tax evasion and illegal mining case in 2012, but is out on bail now.
The allegations were originally made to senior bureaucrat U Sagayam, who had been appointed by the Madras High Court to probe allegations of tax evasion and illegal granite quarrying worth Rs. 16000 crore.
