CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday presented the State government’s Kalpana Chawla Award for Courage and Daring Enterprise to R Ponni, Superintendent of Police, Nagapattinam. The awards carries a medal, cheque for `5 lakh and a certification.
The citation given to Ponni said during her career since joining the duty in 2008, she has exhibited courage and exceptional initiative in carrying out her duties. When she was serving as the ASP in Chengleput, Ponni had intercepted 26 sand laden lorries and got them booked for illicit sand quarrying.
“It is worth noting that she did this practically single handed, with the assistance of driver alone,” the citation added. Similarly, while she was the ASP in Tirupathur in Vellore district, Ponni responded to an alert about the movement of a stolen Tavera and intercepted it securing an accused. This eventually led to detection of number of cases as well as recovery of about 70 sovereigns of gold.