SIVAGANGA: Law and order has significantly improved in Sivaganga with the effective implementation of a bail cancellation strategy by the police initiated since last year.
With the new approach, murders have dropped by at least 60% compared to the average of the last 10 years, and revenge killings have been brought down to zero this year. This has been achieved even as the number of detention orders issued under the Goondas Act fell sharply from 122 last year to just 59 this year, a reduction of more than 52%. 15 bails have been cancelled since last year, said police.
Outgoing Superintendent of Police R Shiva Prasad stated that the police have been making sustained efforts to control rowdy elements by systematically cancelling their bails in previous cases.
“In the last year alone, we have successfully cancelled bail for 15 rowdies through the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, with another 20 cases currently in the pipeline.” This is not a traditional method of controlling anti-social elements, but a new and effective strategy, he added.
The new tactic began after the brutal murder of 65-year-old Sonaimuthu on July 20, 2025, in Nattakudi village. Two history-sheeters, Samayadurai (26) and Singamuthu (22), allegedly beheaded him during a drunken altercation.
The suspects took the victim’s head with them and later discarded it near a lake in T Pudur. The gruesome crime, which was the second murder in the village within a few months, combined with the area’s existing lack of basic facilities, earned Nattakudi village a reputation as a “no-man’s land” among locals.
The two suspects were arrested and initially detained under the Goondas Act. However, they secured bail in the Sonaimuthu murder case within three months (October 2025), and their preventive detention was revoked in April 2026.
Anticipating their imminent release, the district police adopted a proactive bail cancellation strategy. Citing the fact that the accused had committed the Sonaimuthu murder while out on bail in a 2024 murder case, police filed a petition before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court seeking cancellation of their bail.
The court allowed the petition, and both accused were not allowed to be released from prison. Even last week, the duo filed another bail application, but the court rejected it after police strongly opposed the plea, citing the accused’s recidivist tendencies and arguing that bail should not be granted until the trial concludes.
