Chennai: After tracing Pavithra, whose disappearance led to death of her former colleague Shameel Basha allegedly in police custody, and the subsequent riots at Ambur, the TN police are yet to track down their own suspended inspector Martin Premraj. He, as inspector of Pallikonda station in Vellore, investigated and detained Shameel in custody for four days leading to his death in Chennai GH.

“He was supposed to present himself in the CB-CID office in Vellore. But he never turned up. He is not at his given address. He is absconding,” CB CID sources said. Martin Premraj was transferred from Pallikonda station to prohibition enforcement wing after Shameel was admitted to hospital on June 18. By the time Shameel died on June 26 in Chennai GH, the inspector had gone on medical leave. Two days after his death, Martin and six other policemen from the Pallikonda station were placed under suspension.

CB-CID sleuths investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Shameel, have been trying to locate the Inspector for the last one week without any success. “He is not in the given address. He is not responding to summons. His mobile number is switched off. He could have applied for anticipatory bail. But we don’t think court will give AB in this kind of case,” a CB-CID source said. The CB-CID had already recorded the statements of other policemen and the relatives of Shameel.

Pavithra, who went missing since last week of May and traced in Chennai on Sunday, had stated that her decision to leave home had little to do with Shameel Basha. She had told the Madras High Court, where she was produced on Monday following a Habeas Corpus Petition by her husband Palani, that she decided to leave home because she did not want to live with her husband. She had met Shameel in the last week of May in Erode where both worked. At that time he had advised her to go back to her family. But she never returned home. Instead she went for work in a textile shop staying in hostel at Ambattur here.