Murder near Tirunelveli court: Armed cops to beef up security across court premises in State

CHENNAI: In the aftermath of the brutal murder of a suspect near court premises at Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli on Friday, Head of Police Force DGP Shankar Jiwal directed the deployment of Armed Police in all court complexes in the State to bolster the existing security arrangements.

As an interim measure, all Superintendents of Police and City Police Commissioners were asked to deploy a team of one sub-inspector (SI) and two police personnel at the court complexes in their jurisdiction in addition to the existing security arrangements, said an official circular from the police headquarters.

"The SI shall carry a pistol or revolver and another person from the team shall carry one long-range weapon along with ammunition. The arms shall be used for self-defense as well as for safety in instances where someone is targeted for bodily harm, as per law. The team shall be placed at a strategic location," stated the circular.

DGP Jiwal also directed the unit officers to analyse all important cases where retaliation alerts are issued and said the police personnel deployed at courts should also be informed about the cases and the possibility of retaliatory attack.

The unit heads have been directed to send an action-taken report to the police headquarters by Monday (December 23).

On Friday, S Mayandi (38) of Keezha Natham who was waiting in the court premises in Tirunelveli was hacked to death by a gang. Mayandi was the prime accused in the murder of a Dalit youth, Rajamani, which happened in August last year.

The attack near court premises sparked widespread criticism from the advocate community and the opposition parties.