Ten years after the encounter killing of Chennai’s most notorious gangster Ayodhyakuppam Veeramani on Marina, the cop who fired the bullets received on Friday the Chief Minister’s Police Medal for Gallantry for his daring act.
S. Vellaidurai (49), Deputy Superintendant of Police, Manamadurai in Sivagangai district, was in the city to receive the medal from the Chief Minister in a grand event held at the Nehru indoor stadium.
Reminiscing that Sunday morning of July 27, 2003 on the beach, Vellaidurai who was then a Sub-Inspector with the Marina Police Station said that he along with his colleague Kingsley had gone to pickup Veeramani whom he had once arrested in Tiruchi for an another offence.
“He was a huge guy wearing lot of gold jewellery on him and was always surrounded by his men armed with knives and sickles. We approached Veeramani to come with us after he had just returned from the day’s fishing in the sea. He refused to give in and attacked us. I had to fire two bullets at him from my pistol,” the DSP said.
The gangster who sent shivers among people all along Chennai’s southern coastline for over a decade, died on the spot after the bullets pierced his head and heart.
“He was the most dreadful of the criminals I have ever faced in my career,” recalled the officer who had gunned down 11 men in six successful police encounters till date.
