In yet another shot of encouragement to the police department in the State, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, on Monday, ordered cash awards for more than 250 policemen who helped in the efforts to nab three terror suspects recently.
Following the formation of a special investigation team recently, three suspected terrorists - ‘Police’ Fakrudeen, Panna Ismail and Bilal Malik - were arrested for their involvement in various cases of murder and attack on members of Hindu organisations. The arrests also involved a police raid on a house in Puttur earlier this month.
Subsequent to the arrests, the Chief Minister sanctioned cash awards and promotions to 21 police personnel. On October 9, she also visited S Lakshmanan, an inspector with the CB-CID, at the hospital in Chennai where he was recovering from injuries sustained during the raid. A cash award of Rs 15 lakh was also handed over to his family.
In a statement on Monday, Jayalalithaa said coordinated efforts and functioning was indispensable for making such arrests. Therefore, she said she had ordered cash awards to several other police officers who efficiently functioned in gathering intelligence for such operations.
In this regard, Periamet inspector Veerakumar, who assisted in nabbing ‘Police’ Fakrudeen on October 4, and M Vijayaperumal and K Mariappan of Special Intelligence Cell (SIC), who helped getting other suspects, Panna Ismail and Bilal Malik, out of the house in Puttur, where they were hiding on October 5, would be given a cash award of Rs 5 lakh.
A cash award of Rs 2 lakh would be given to Periamet woman police officer Radhika for assisting the arrest of Fakrudeen by passing crucial information. Special Investigation Cell inspectors S Ramamoorthy and B Bandarinathan too would be given Rs 2 lakh each for providing timely information on the cases.
This apart, a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh would be given to 245 police officers including five constables from Periamet police station, another six personnel who helped defuse the explosives seized from Puttur and others attached to special division, special investigation division, special intelligence cell and special investigation team.