The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Police revamp begins in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri

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Friday, Jun 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Police revamp begins in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri

R. Ilangovan

The exercise follows the theft of guns from the Athiyamankottai station and hooch tragedies

Many station officers are not direct recruits
35 policemen have been suspended

SALEM: The government has started overhauling the middle-and low-rung policemen in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, where police guns went missing and illicit liquor claimed many lives in the past six months.

An in-house inquiry, conducted by senior officers as per the directive of ADGP (Law and Order) K. Vijayakumar, has exposed the suspected involvement of a few policemen in the theft of guns from the Athiyamankottai station and the Pennagaram sub-treasury office, both in Dharmapuri district, and their connivance at the activities of bootleggers which, officials feel, led to the hooch tragedies that claimed 58 lives in both the districts.

Salem Range DIG N. Chenbagaraman told The Hindu that many station officers in these districts were not direct recruits; they were elevated from the low-rung cadre. “Since the SPs of these districts have sought, we have transferred the directly recruited officers.”

A senior police officer says many personnel have been working in the two districts since they joined the force. The inquiry has also revealed that for a majority of them, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri happen to be the native districts.

The fact that these districts share a porous border with neighbouring States of Karnakata and Andhra Pradesh has emboldened the “black sheep” in the force to forge nefarious links with inter-State gangs of bootleggers, rice smugglers, and even radical groups.

Dharmapuri SP Najmul Hoda says that since the police have been tightening the screw, brewers and smugglers, in connivance with a few local policemen, cause embarrassment to senior officers and the government. “We will soon have a force of young and educated officers here.”

Thirty-five policemen (31 in Dharmapuri and 4 in Krishnagiri) have so far been placed under suspension since February for “dereliction of duty” after the guns went missing, and the hooch tragedies.

To stem the rot, the ADGP has ordered a revamp of the force, but in phases.

18 SIs transferred

Mr. Chenbagaraman has transferred 18 sub-inspectors, all direct recruits, from Salem and Namakkal and posted nine each in the sensitive stations of Dharmapuri and Krishngiri.

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