The State police gave its outgoing Chief, Jacob Punnoose, a stately farewell at the parade ground of the Special Armed Police Battalion here on Monday.
Ignoring the rain, several companies of armed police constables, turned out in full ceremonial regalia and marched past their Chief in good order to the accompaniment of the police brass band.
Mr. Punnoose, who assumed the podium, reciprocated their salute sombrely. Earlier, the battalion presented an honour guard for his inspection. Breaking official punctiliousness, Mr. Punnoose thanked them for their salutation.
He said that perhaps his only regret in 38 years of police service was that he could not so far arrest the killers of Maniyan Pillai, a civil police officer who was stabbed to death during night patrol duty in Kollam in July.
Mr. Punnoose remembered his 1975 IPS batch mate, Govinda Ram, who died fighting insurgents in Punjab in the 1980s. He said 11 IPS batch mates of his had died in the line of their duty. He remembered the 70 State policemen who had martyred their lives during his years of service in the force, including Sreenivasan, who was his driver, while Mr. Punnoose served as City Police Commissioner in Kozhikode.
He said the State police were fully prepared to meet any law and order challenges and compared well with any modern police force in the world. He urged the top brass of the State police to continue their drive to modernise the force.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Raja Raja Varma, Additional Directors General of Police T.P. Senkumar, Vinson M. Paul, R. Sreerekha, and A. Hemachandran were present.
