Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police was left red-faced by two incidents that took place on Tuesday night in the neighbouring districts of Tiruppur and Coimbatore – a murder and a suicide.
In Tiruppur, famed for its knitwear industry, Special Sub Inspector of Police Shanmugavel (57) and Constable Azhagu Raja (35), both attached to the Gudimangalam Police Station, were on night patrol on Tuesday when the control room received a call about a fight in a farm land involving a father and his sons. The two policemen rushed to the spot when Murthy, a farm hand and his two sons were physically attacking each other. Shanmugavel intervened to separate them.
However, shortly thereafter, Thangapandian attacked the Special Sub Inspector and the Constable with a machete. Thangapandian succumbed to the deep neck injuries he sustained in the attack while the Constable escaped. The attacker also fled the spot.
On Wednesday, as opposition parties posed hard questions about the law and order situation where there was “no safety even for the men in uniform”, Chief Minister M K Stalin, who heads the Home portfolio, issued a statement expressing shock over the crime. He also announced a solatium of Rs one crore to the family of the slain Shanmugam, while directing the police to trace the murderer.
Just as the police was left red faced over the development, came in another news. In neighbouring Coimbatore district – known as the Manchester of the South – when a Sub Inspector at the Bazaar Street Police Station walked up to his room after the morning roll call, he found it locked from inside. Upon forcibly opening the door he and his colleagues were in for a shock. They found a man aged around 60 dead inside the room.
While it triggered speculations about a custodial death, Coimbatore City Police Commissioner Saravana Sundar announced to journalists that the man had actually died by suicide. The man, identified as Raja of Perur, had actually walked into the police station at around 11.20 pm on Tuesday claiming he was being chased by a group of people.
“Constable Senthilkumar was the lone person on sentry duty. He did not spot anyone coming after Raja so he asked him to go home and come the following day. However, Raja managed to sneak into the first floor through a staircase inside the station building while Senthilkumar was busy attending an official call. He locked himself inside the Sub Inspector’s room and ended his life,” the Commissioner said.
The Commissioner’s explanation not withstanding, the incident raised questions about how porous the security within a police station is for a stranger to sneak in without being noticed.
