The district police have launched a special drive to execute pending arrest warrants against absconding accused and began issuing notices to those who stood as sureties to the accused who obtained bail and went abroad.
As per police records, 627 arrest warrants, including 147 ‘foreign warrants’, were pending in the district, and the police had started issuing notices to the sureties, mostly blood relatives of the accused, to produce them before the courts or face legal action, Superintendent of Police N.M. Mylvahanan said.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, the SP said after the police began the exercise last month and mounted pressure, the sureties ensured that five accused who were in foreign countries surrendered before courts. Notices to the sureties were being issued through the Special Sub-Inspectors (SSI) of Police, acting as Panchayat Liaison Officers (PLOs), he said.
In the remaining cases, police had prioritised 103 arrest warrants, which were “easily executable” and taking action to execute them, the SP also said.
The police also proposed to match police records with court records to categorise the arrest warrants for speedy action, he added.
Mr. Mylvahanan said the district police had issued Lookout Circular (LOC) for 23 accused from 2011 to 2014, and 17 of them were pending after the police arrested six accused on being alerted by immigration officials at different airports in the country.
While two accused were arrested in Delhi Airport, one each was arrested in Mumbai, Cochin, Madurai and Tiruchi airports, he said.
These accused had passports and escaped to foreign countries after committing crimes, the SP said, adding one of the 17 accused, who was from Mudukulathur, was facing rape charge and another one from Uchipuli was facing murder charge.
In February, the police arrested two accused facing LOC at Madurai and Tiruchi airports on being alerted by the immigration officials, he added.
