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NT Bureau
Chennai, Mar 14:

        Comeback stories are very rare in bureaucracy. But it happens too, though once in a blue moon.

        Today's surprise-meeting of former Chennai Police Commissioner K Muthu-karuppan and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi could turn out to be one such comeback story.

        The one-on- one meeting has sparked off speculation that the suspension of the former blue- eyed boy of the AIADMK regime would be revoked.

        Muthukaruppan met the Chief Minister at his Gopalapuram residence and is said to have apprised him about 'all that he had wanted to tell him all these days.'

        Interestingly, it was during Muthukaruppan's tenure in 2001 when Karunanidhi was arrested in a midnight drama that took the State by storm and caused a lot of embarrassment to the then BJP-led government at the Centre.

        Sadly for Muthu-karuppan, he was also pulled up by the Madras High Court in a matter related to the arrest and detention of then DMK MLA and now Minister ParithiIlamvazhuthi.

        Slamming the former city commissioner and an inspector for filing a false affidavit, the Madras High Court, a couple of years ago, sentenced them to one-week simple imprisonment.

        Finding Muthukaruppan guilty of contempt of court on a petition filed by the Parithi Ilamvazhuthi, a division bench comprising Justice M. Karpagavina-yagam and Justice S.R. Singharavelu handed down the sentence of simple imprisionment.

        However, the Supreme Court later suspended the seven-day simple imprisonment. A special leave petition (SLP) was filed by Muthukaruppan and senior counsels Dipankar Gupta and T Raja argued before a bench comprising Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice P.K. Balasubra-manyan and the operation of the judgment was then suspended.

        Adding more twist to the story was the 'request' of the Centre to depute Muthukaruppan whose 'services' were then said to be required for a post in the Cabinet Secretariat in Delhi. It was seen as a move to punish the senior police officer who was 'involved' in the arrest drama of the DMK president. The issue also threatened to snowball into a Centre-State confrontation.

        In a renewed bid to build new bridges, Muthu-karuppan in a recent interview to a Tamil bi-weekly had said that he was not a party to the arrest drama of the previous government.

        In this backdrop, Muthukaruppan, who was suspended on graft charges, has met Karunanidhi and speculation is rife that the senior officer may be reinstated into service.