Police surveillance will soon be intensified in violence-prone areas of north Chennai in an attempt to address the anxieties of citizens who are shocked at the spate of murders over the past month. Many incidents are part of the gang wars that have infested Vyasarpadi, MKB Nagar, Pulianthope, Washermenpet and Basin Bridge over the past years.
On Thursday, more than two thousand residents in Vyasarpadi held a protest demanding a safer environment. R Vinod Kumar, a resident of Pulianthope, said “Locations such as railway goods sheds and playgrounds are haunts for criminals after sunset. We hope the increased surveillance by the police will bring peace.”
In January alone, six murders occurred in north Chennai. On Tuesday night, a 19-year-old ITI student in Satyamurthy Nagar was killed by his friends one of whom was in love with the same girl as him. They beheaded him and left the head near his house on the Satyamurthy Nagar Main Road. On the same night, an anti-social element was hacked to death by his friends over a petty quarrel in Basin Bridge while another man was found dead with his throat slit with a broken bottle at a TASMAC shop at Tondiarpet. All murders happened within a radius of around two kilometres.
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Police sources said a list of criminals, including small-time and dormant ones, has been prepared. Area-wise data regarding their activities has been collected and has been provided to special police teams that will monitor the activities of the gangs.
More police check points with round-the-clock surveillance at important locations including Satyamurthy Nagar Main Road in Vyasarpadi will also be set up soon. Further, surveillance will be intensified around open and isolated areas after sunset.
Beat policing too will be strengthened and more policemen will be deployed on night duty in the locality.
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North Chennai has always been notorious for history-sheeters, but from mid-2007 onwards, things had been relatively quiet But from mid-2010 onwards, the situation began to deteriorate again. “An effective intelligence network by the police should be in place to prevent such killings,” said Perambur MLA, A Soundararajan.