Kerala - Alappuzha   

White Panthers to deal with goons in Alappuzha

ALAPPUZHA: The district police have put together a special team, named White Panthers, as part of their efforts to reign in goons in the region.

According to top police officials here, the White Panthers would deal with goon activity in Alappuzha town and its surrounding areas. Significantly, the team members, who will be in mufti and armed, have been authorised to use their weapons against any goon during duty.

With the goon menace in the town being ‘supervised’ by organised teams of hired killers, popular as ‘quotation gangs,’ the White Panthers and the regular police have been permitted to make use of the Goonda Act against such gangs as well. People who hire quotation gangs too will be booked under criminal conspiracy cases, officials said.

In the meantime, eight persons who were moving around with weapons at Thondankulangara on Monday night were apprehended by a team led by Alappuzha North Circle Inspector C.P. Thankachan and Sub Inspector K.A. Thomas. Two of the nabbed are accused in the case related to an attack on three policemen near the Kottamkulangara temple on February 4.

The police also arrested Ponnamma, a resident of Thiruvambadi, on Monday in connection with the attack on five houses near Pazhaveedu on Sunday. It is alleged that Ponnamma had a feud with her neighbour and engaged goons to ‘settle’ the issue.

Incidentally, even as various teams of the police were making the rounds, a gang of goons attacked a resort near Thondankulangara on Sunday night while a couple of armed persons triggered panic near the ESI hospital here last night.

An increase in the number of burglaries and daylight robberies too has added to the woes of the public here. Alappuzha MLA K.C. Venugopal raised the issue in the State Assembly on Tuesday.

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