Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

`Punk' Kumar "attacked police"

City Bureau

Officers fired in self-defence: Commissioner

CHENNAI: The City police on Tuesday strongly defended its killing of `Punk' Kumar in an encounter. Kumar is wanted in several criminal cases and had been detained under the Goondas Act on seven occasions.

"We will continue with our actions to maintain law and order. We will not hesitate to retaliate if attacked by rowdies when we (try to) arrest them," asserted the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner Letika Saran on Tuesday.

A special team, which was reportedly attacked with bombs by Kumar on Tuesday evening when it tried to arrest him on charges of threatening a realtor, shot him dead in suburban Sankar Nagar police station limits. In the encounter, some policemen were injured. They were admitted to Sri Ramachandra Medical College Porur for treatment.

Ms Saran and Additional Commissioner of Police S R Jangid called on the injured policemen in hospital.

Speaking to reporters at the Government Hospital Chromepet, Ms. Saran reacted to a specific question on whether such encounters reflected a failure of the police.

She said Kumar had already been detained seven times under the Goondas Act. "Such encounters are never planned," she said, adding that policemen opened fire in self-defence.

More than 2000 persons are in the city police rowdies' list. After the broad daylight murder of two notorious rowdies in the city in October and November, the police came under severe criticism.

Ms. Saran said at a recent press conference that in the last month alone, over 1,000 anti-socials were detained and that the drive would continue.

Murder cases

Forty cases were registered against `Punk' Kumar in the city, police said. Kumar, a BA, had become friends with Umar, a rowdy element. He used to attend `kattapanchayats' with him. When Umar was killed by his rivals Sampath and Purushothaman in Saidapet in 1991, `Punk' Kumar retaliated by murdering Paramasivam.

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