History and silver screen portrayal of Malaiyoor Mambattiyan have always been fascinating. Soon people of Coimbatore will get a glimpse of the life of Mambattiyan with weapons that belonged to the local Robin Hood from Mecheri in Salem finding a place in the Police Museum, which is getting readied here.
A hero for locals and villain for law enforcers, Mambattiyan was killed in 1964. Subsequently, the police seized several weapons that belonged to Mambattiyan.
The Police Museum, the erstwhile Hamilton Club, has displayed four rifles, two pistols, two revolvers and a sword that belonged to Mambattiyan.
“Local history says he used to appear with a mambatti (spade) on shoulder and thus got the name Mambattiyan. The weapons that belonged to him were brought to the museum with cooperation from Salem police,” said A. Amalraj, City Police Commissioner.
Of the four rifles, two are country-made single-barrel rifles. Of the remaining, one is a double barrel rifle and the other, a short barrel rifle, all believed to have been made locally. Ammunition in the rifles had to be filled manually after every shot. The sword that belonged to Mambattiyan has old Tamil inscription on it.
Close to Mambattiyan’s weaponry, efforts are being made to put on display weapons used by the most-wanted forest brigand Veerappan, who is believed to have drawn inspiration from the former.
Among the weaponry seized from extremist outfits and criminals, the museum will also feature assault rifles, and light and medium machine guns used by LTTE. The LTTE weaponry collection at the museum include a German-made The Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun, Heckler and Koch G3 battle rifle, AK 47 and AK 54 made in China, two wireless sets, seven Gurkha knives, and a Colt pistol seized from LTTE operative in Coimbatore. Except the pistol, all other weapons were brought from Ramanathapuram.
Apart from weapons, a special team is working on to collect manuscripts and books on the history of Coimbatore. So far, 20 collections have been procured for the museum.
Mr. Amalraj said that efforts are also being made to put on display a fighter plane at the museum.
