A fresh impetus has been given to pending grave crimes reported in various districts in the Tiruchi Range with the law enforcing authorities instructing the field-level officers to concentrate on such cases and achieve breakthrough in them.
Alongside focussing on cracking pending grave crimes, the officers have also been asked to activate village vigilance committees in each district with a view to widening their information network and reducing offences.
These specific directives along with a set of measures that needed to be carried out were put across to senior police officers of the Tiruchi Range by the Inspector General of Police, Central Zone, K.Sokkalingam, during his first meeting with them on the day of taking charge here recently.
The marathon meeting lasting over six hours at the District Police Office here was attended by the Superintendents of Police of Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Karur districts; Additional Superintendents of Police and Deputy Superintendents of Police.
During the meeting, the IG reviewed the pending grave crime cases, including those in which the value of stolen property was put at Rs.5lakh.
Instructions were given to the participating officers to constitute crime detection parties in every sub-division falling under the Tiruchi Range to expedite probe in grave crime cases which were still in the ‘under investigation' stage.
Offences in which the value of stolen property exceeds Rs.50, 000 are categorised as “grave” by the police. Murder for gain and dacoity cases are also categorised as grave crimes.
Inspectors who are to head the sub division- wise special parties would be spared of the routine duties and provided with necessary logistics to enable them to focus on the specific tasks. Personnel who were adept in crime knowledge would be handpicked for the crime detection parties, says IG Sokkalingam.
The special teams have been instructed to show some good results in the pending cases at least by obtaining some tangible clues within a month that would enable in apprehending the culprits and achieving a breakthrough thereby.
Similar instruction for according priority to solving pending grave crimes would be given to the law enforcers serving in the Thanjavur Range comprising Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts, the IG said. Police sources say the number of murder for gain, dacoity, robbery and burglary cases that are still in the under investigation stage was more than 150 in Tiruchi Range alone.
The sources said in addition to activating village vigilance committees involving public, station house officers have been asked to conduct periodic meetings with its members to widen their information network and reduce crimes in the long run. The government had sanctioned Rs.2 crore for the entire state for conducting periodic meetings with the village vigilance committee members.
Police officers have been asked to install flex boards containing photographs of rowdy elements and “bad characters” in front of every police station in the Zone and at important junctions along with the contact numbers of the police station and the Inspector.
