City police’s most decorated K-9 succumbs to cancer

CHENNAI: Chennai police special Sub-Inspector J Abraham is still in mourning. The last time a pup he trained died, he was on medical leave for a month. That was a decade-and-a-half ago. Over the years, he learnt to deal with grief, however, his companion for the last 12 years, Agni, a Doberman, one of the most decorated canines in the city Police Department, succumbed to cancer on Monday.

“He came to me when he was just three-and-a-half months old. I got him from a breeder in Madhavaram. In the last three-and-a-half months until his death, I could not be with him as he was shifted to Madhavaram Kennel due to old age. It is a coincidence that I could not be with him for the first and last three months of his life,” rued the 48-year-old policeman.

His apartment in the newly inaugurated Cochin house police quarters is still a mess. The family moved in a week ago, but with Agni on his death bed, setting up their quarters was the last thing on their minds. Whenever Abraham returned to Chennai after attending competitions in other states, his whole family turned up at the railway station to receive Abraham and Agni. Agni’s victories were theirs too.

Agni was a champion, at work and on the field

In the 12 years Agni lived, he had participated in eleven police duty meets, including five all India meets, winning eight medals. “There is no other dog in Tamil Nadu police dog squad which has won a gold, silver and bronze medal in All India Police Duty Meet,” Abraham told DT Next.

Police dogs are broadly trained for three kinds of detection- crime, explosives and narcotics. Agni was trained for narcotics detection and has assisted the investigators in several cases.

Abraham joined Tamil Nadu police in 1997 and had a brief stint with the Tamil Nadu police commando and joined the Chennai Police dog squad in 2007. After going in search of a pup, Abraham selected Agni from a breeder in Madhavaram in 2010. “I feel our partnership was destined.” It’s a story he reminisces with tears in his eyes.

In official parlance, Abraham was Agni’s handler. But, it does not feel like a hyperbole when Abraham refers to Agni as his son.

On Monday morning, Abraham received a call that Agni succumbed. All the handlers at the Chennai Police dog squad turned up at the Government Veterinary college in Vepery where Agni was taken for autopsy.

There is a photograph of Agni’s mortal remains on a stretcher with the eight medals he won and garlands, with Abraham by his side. That was their parting memory. Unlike in the districts and other parts of the country, Chennai police does not lend a guard of honour to its canines after they breathe last, despite being the first dog squad in the country.