Tamil Nadu   

Law & Order: Monitoring mechanism on criminals in place

Salem police have fewer problems in the arena of law and order, writes R. Ilangovan

Police in Salem district has an unusual problem to deal with. Unlike their counterparts in other parts of the state, particularly in southern and northern districts, the police here have fewer problems in the area of law and order. But they have a handful on the crime front.

Barring the Omalur school violence, which the Salem rural police handled clumsily, there has been no serious law and order issue in the district till today. In fact, sources say that after the jail riots in the late fifties and the bomb attack which the forest brigand Veerappan triggered against the STF personnel in Palar Bridge near Kolathur, the police have never handled any serious riotous situations in the recent past. But the Salem police have to strain their sinew in the area of crime and crime detection. The city and the district are notorious for chain snatchings, house-breakings, robberies, thefts and murders for gain. "These crimes happen frequently here despite intense patrolling and quick detection," says a police officer. Here pockets are picked nonchalantly in running buses and in crowded places. Locked houses are the soft targets and gullible women fall easy preys to the lurking chain snatchers. Murders take place with monotonous regularity. While the police nab culprits involved in these crimes immediately, a fresh batch emerges from the dingy lanes of the city's crime- prone areas to continue the unlawful activities. "These frist time offenders pose serious problems to us," concedes the officer.

There were incidents not in the distant past in which the police arrested a fairly known bakery shop owner for committing robberies during nights. Two college students of a private dental college were arrested for shop breaking while a Russian artiste, who came with his troupe to perform, had lost his bag containing passports, visas and money. The police are still in search of his bag-lifters.

The geographical location of the district, which shares porous borders with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, happens to be the major factor behind the proliferation of criminals. "They infiltrate, commit crimes and flee," says the officer. Local criminals forge a strong bond of understanding with those from across the borders. However, crime busters on instructions from the Salem DIG Alexander Mohan have started tracing the missing criminals. Police have been asked to monitor those who have been released from the prisons. A dossier on these criminals, the officials feel, will enable them to have a sustained monitoring mechanism on the criminals. These efforts will make Salem, also infamously known as the `city of crimes', to sport a positive in the days to come.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Law & Order: Monitoring mechanism on criminals in place
Royapuram loco shed work to begin
Arms seizure case set to be transferred to Andhra Pradesh
Women SHGs urged to take up textile designing
NLC chief for reducing production costs
Colourful display
70 freedom fighters honoured at Republic Day celebrations
Briefly

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu