Karnataka   

Police memorial languishing in Mysore

— Photo: M.A. Sriram

Long wait: The memorial built as a tribute to the police officers killed in operations against forest brigand Veerappan, in Mysore.

MYSORE: Call it ignorance or indifference, a memorial built in honour of the State police officers who laid down their lives in the operations against forest brigand Veerappan, at a prominent circle in Mysore, is languishing because the city police did not take permission from the Government and the Mysore City Corporation before establishing it.

According to State Government norms, if a statue or a memorial has to be built in a circle, approval from the Government as well as the elected council of the city corporation or the municipal authority is mandatory. Perhaps, unaware of this, the police built the memorial in front of the office of Superintendent of Police at Jalapuri Circle.

The memorial cannot be inaugurated without permission from the Government and the corporation. Top police sources here told The Hindu that the police built the memorial when the Jalapuri area was dominated by offices of the Police Department.

The memorial was planned when Praveen Sood was the city’s Police Commissioner. Built in June last, the memorial is said to be one of its kind since no such memorial for the police officers gunned down by Veerappan has been built in the State.

There was no elected council in the corporation when the memorial was built. Sources said 36 police personnel, including an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police and four Sub-Inspectors, who were part of the erstwhile Special Task Force (STF) constituted to nab the brigand, were killed in the operations.

Incidentally, Superintendent of Police, Mysore, Harikrishna, who along with Sub-Inspector Shakeel Ahmed fell to Veerappan’s bullets in an ambush near Meenyam on August 14, 1992, was holding the post of Superintendent of Police, Mysore district, when he was posted to the STF. The four sub-inspectors, including Shakeel Ahmed, had worked in different police stations in Mysore, before they were roped in for the anti-Veerappan operations. The bust of Harikrishna has been sculpted and the names of all the policemen have been engraved on a granite pillar.

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