The Salem city police organised a novel programme to provide counselling and assistance for the victims of crime to infuse confidence in them in here on Sunday.
Counselling and assistance was provided by the senior police officers to the victims and relatives of 89 cases, including 40 cases of road accidents at the B1 Salem Town Police station limits on the occasion.
In his inaugural address, Police Commissioner K. Shankar said that this camp was organised with the objective of informing the victims of the crime and their relatives that the police will always stand by their side and will extend all cooperation in getting justice through the legal procedures and also in getting the financial assistance provided by the government.
Mr. Shankar said that the police after receiving complaints from the victims or their relatives and filing first information report undertakes the responsibility of conducting the prosecution on their behalf.
The people, who preferred complaints, never get information on the action taken by the police. This leads to doubts in the minds of the people on police action. The police will always be doing sincere work to protect the interest of the victims and the prosecution witnesses and also to ensure that the guilty were subjected to suitable punishment.
This camp was only to infuse confidence in the minds of the complainants. The police will give the details of the action taken to the victims/complainants on their complaints through such camps, he said.
Referring to the complaints of 40 accident victims, Mr. Shankar said that the State Government was providing financial assistance to the tune of ₹ one lakh to the relatives of the deceased who were killed in fatal accidents and ₹ 50,000 to the injured.
The general public is not aware of this scheme and the procedures involved in submitting applications for getting this benefit. The Commissioner said that guidance will be provided to the affected people in this camp.
Urging the people to take full advantage of the camp, Mr. Shankar said that those who were still not satisfied with the outcome of the counselling, can contact him or the Deputy Commissioner of Police, personally.
Similar camps will be conducted in all police station limits, he added.
P. Thangadurai, Deputy Commissioner of Police (law and order) and N. Tirisiribavan, Additional Public Prosecutor, Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, also spoke on the occasion explaining the various legal procedures involved in dealing with criminal cases.
