Businessman kills self, kin blames DSP

COIMBATORE: A brick kiln owner here committed suicide on Thursday after he was allegedly intimidated by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in connection with a property dispute. Relatives of the deceased, D Devaraj (55), alleged that the Perianaickenpalayam DSP, B Sakthivel, was favouring one of the parties and had even threatened to arrest Devaraj and his family members. “The DSP had threatened my husband that he could arrest him under false charges if he did not concede to the demands of the other party. For the last three days he was repeatedly saying that the police would be arresting him and his two kids because of his fault. When I went out of the house for a while, he resorted to the extreme step,” said Devaraj’s wife D Mallika.“It is not suicide, but a murder. The DSP and Jaganathan (who is a party involved in the property dispute) had together murdered my father by intimidating him,” said Devaraj’s daughter D Vanitha.The dispute was over the leasing out of a four-acre land that Devaraj owned in Nanjundapuram village on Thadagam Road. Devaraj’s relatives said that the land was given on a 15-year lease to Jaganathan and they wanted to terminate it after some problems erupted between them. They  said that the DSP unduly interfered in the civil dispute and was forcing them to extend the lease to Jaganathan. “His behaviour towards us was very harsh and he was openly favouring Jaganathan,” said Devaraj’s brother D Rajendran.