This post belongs to my This is India ! series (see here)
On December 14, Selva Doss (42), his wife and two children tried to self-immolate in front of the TNCC office demanding Jayanthi Natarajan return Rs 33 lakh collected by members of her personal staff after promising jobs in the department of Animal Special Police, a non-existent force under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Interestingly, Selva Doss had been arrested by the Chennai Police in January along with a gang which was led by OS Bavani Babu on charges of swindling job aspirants to the tune of Rs 30 crore. The racket promised young job seekers posts of Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and Constables in the ASP. The post of Inspector was available to those who were ready to shell out Rs 6 lakh. The post of a Sub-Inspector cost Rs 5 lakh while the Constable’s post was offered at a price of Rs 4 lakh. The arrests were made following complaints from the Animal Welfare Board of India office-bearers.
Though the report was widely published across Tamil Nadu, the racket led by Babu continued their “dream run” all over the State. Kannan, brother-in-law of Selva Doss told The Pioneer that the gang was helped by some members of the personal staff of Gayatri Devi, officer on special duty to Natarajan. “Gayatri’s brother Yuvaraj and her secretary Dina were involved in this operation. They collected Rs 33 lakh from friends of Selva Doss on promising jobs in the ASP,” said Kannan.
Since the job seekers did not get any letters of appointment from the ASP, they started tormenting Selva Doss and his family. Doss had no other alternative but to take his family to the TNCC office and threatened that they would commit suicide if the party leaders do not help him in getting the money back. He submitted a petition to BS Gnanadesikan, the TNCC president who promised help. It is said that Gnanadesikan forwarded the complaint filed by Doss to the Congress high command.
Party insiders in TNCC laughed at reports that Jayanthi Natarajan is quitting the Council of Ministers to concentrate on party work. “The party leadership might have offered an easy way out for her before the Selva Doss issue snowballs into a major scam,” said a senior TNCC leader, who also said that there were many complaints about Gayatri Devi.-from DailyPioneer
