WHO KILLED THIS MAN - 2 (ANNANAGAR RAMESH -- SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE)

Ramesh Narayanan, better known as Annanagar Ramesh (because he used to stay in a posh villa in H Block of Annanagar in Chennai), was an intimate crony of M K Stalin, the son and heir apparent of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi. Ramesh was a civil engineering contractor and was earlier very close to former AIADMK minister S D Somasundaram. He had managed to get close to Stalin in 1996 after the annihilation of the AIADMK in the hustings that year. His closeness to Stalin was so well known that ticket-seekers from the DMK who wished to contest elections in 2001, queued outside Ramesh’s high-walled residence requesting him to make a reference to his friend. Stalin too was a regular visitor to Ramesh’s house and his car could be seen entering the massive gates on many a night. When Mr. Stalin began his campaign in the Thousand Lights constituency, Ramesh drove the open jeep during the first leg at Stalin’s insistence. The general talk in political circles was that Ramesh was Stalin’s conscience keeper and was privy to all his secrets, both official and personal.

In May 2001, the DMK party was voted out and the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa took over the reins of power in the state. Shortly after, cases were registered against Stalin, who had been the Mayor of Chennai Corporation, on charges of large scale corruption in awarding of contracts for the construction of road traffic over-bridges in Chennai city. It was alleged that the Corporation had suffered a loss of Rs 12 Crores because of the irregularities in the construction of these fly-overs. The media at that time was rife with rumours about the impending arrest of Stalin and his associates in connection with these cases.

At 7:45 AM on July 16, the Tirumangalam Police Station in Annanagar received a phone call informing that Annanagar Ramesh and his entire family was dead in their house. The call came from C K V Ramanan, a relative of Ramesh. Police, on arrival, found the 37 year old Ramesh, along with his 30-year-old wife Kanchana, and his three daughters, Monisha (10), Sharmila (9) and Tinku (11 months) lying dead on their bed. By their side was a suicide note said to have been written by Ramesh, some bottles of soft drinks and glasses, apart from an empty container of insecticide.

The two-page suicide note claimed that one Deivasigamani had foisted a false case against Ramesh and hence he was taking this extreme step (of mass suicide), as he feared that his image would be hurt. T G Deivasigamani, also a contractor, had named Ramesh as the conduit for a Rs 7 crore bribe allegedly paid by him to Stalin and former Highways Minister Tha Kiruttinan for a road-laying contract. “I have not taken a single paisa. Now I fear I may be implicated in a heroin-related case”, said Ramesh, in his suicide note. He requested Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to intervene and tell the police not to foist false cases on ordinary people like himself. “My wife and I took this decision ten days ago and we are implementing it now. We think it is better to end our lives than face these cases and be labelled in the press as one who received commissions'', he said.

Ramanan, for his part claimed that Ramesh had called him up the previous day and requested him to give a wake-up call at 5:30 AM. He had personally gone to Ramesh’s house to wake him up. When there was no response to the door bell, he had opened the door and gone inside only to find the entire Ramesh family lying dead on the bed. In a state of panic, he had raised a cry bringing neighbours on to the scene. Someone had then advised him to inform the police and that was how he ended up calling the police station, he said.

Both the DMK and the AIADMK went about interpreting the case in a manner that suited them. The DMK painted Ramesh as a victim of police harassment. The party petitioned the State Human Rights Commission on the issue. The DMK complaint claimed : “frequent threatening visits by the Anna Nagar police to Ramesh's residence to extract statements which will suit their evil schemes created panic in the minds of the family. The police intentionally harassed Ramesh and his family, thereby creating mental agony and pain”. The SHRC, for its part, issued orders to the Dean of Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, where the post mortem was done, to produce the post mortem report and the videotapes taken at the time of autopsy to the Commission. The Commission also declared that as per the law, abetment death was a violation of human rights, implying that the police machinery would be hauled up if harassment leading to the mass suicide was established.

The then City Police Commissioner, Muthukaruppan claimed that though Deivasigamani had filed a complaint against Ramesh 45 days earlier, the police had not questioned Ramesh or his family members and as such there was no justification for the claim of police harassment. Doubting the veracity of the suicide note, he said it was being sent to handwriting experts for analysis. Stating that cyanide and not pesticide was the cause of death, he asked why there was a gap of 10 days between taking a joint decision to commit suicide and actually doing it. Claiming that there were several loose ends in the case, the COP also wondered why Ramanan had taken 2 hours between discovering the bodies and informing the police.

The AIADMK party chipped in by insinuating that Ramesh knew all of Stalin’s secrets and his suicide had been abetted by the DMK leader to ensure that a road in police investigation was permanently closed.

There the case lies even today. Two governments have changed since the deaths took place. Both the DMK and the AIADMK have wielded power. Yet the truth has never come out either from the police or from the State Human Rights Commission.

What really did happen to Annanagar Ramesh? Did he commit suicide or was he and family members murdered? We may never know.