Chennai, Dec 13: Periya Pandi, a 48-year-old police inspector from Chennai, was gunned down by burglars in a village in Palidistrict of Rajasthan in the early hours of Wednesday when he and a team of police personnel went there to nab the prime suspect in a burglary case reported in Kolathur here this year.
The Chennai police had recently nabbed four suspects in the burglary case. Pandi, who was the Maduravoyal law and order police inspector, and a team of police personnel from Anna Nagar police district, went to the Rajasthan village after they received a tip off that the prime suspect was living in a house there.
The team barged into the suspect's house in Jai Taran village around 2.30am. There were a few men in the house. They opened fire on the police personnel and escaped from there. Periya Pandi and four others suffered injuries.
The police personnel from Chennai had two pistols for their personal safety. However, they didn't expect an ambush.
The police team alerted the local police. The local police rescued all the five injured policemen and sent them to a government hospital there.
Doctors examined Periya Pandi and declared him dead on arrival.
The other injured policemen were shifted to a police private hospital in Pali district.
The Rajasthan police registered a case and launched a hunt for the suspects.
Chennai city police commissioner A K Viswanathan asked joint commissioner of police (West Chennai) Santhosh Kumar to visit Rajasthan to pursue the issue further.
Viswanathan said, "I am talking to the senior officers in Rajasthan and also seeking help from my batchmates in that state. The Rajasthan police are helpful and cooperating. The injured cops are stable now. I spoke to them. It is a great set back to the city police. However, we should learn from this."
The Chennai police team didn't inform the local police when they went Jai Taran village.
Pandi's family and relatives left for Rajasthan to bring his body to Chennai after postmortem. Pandi hailed from Moovirundhali village near Tirunelveli.
Pandi, a direct batch SI of 2000 batch, was promoted as inspector in 2014. He was posted as Aminjikarai crime inspector. He excelled in solving criminal cases. Recently, he arrested a burglar involved in stealing parked vehicles including many luxury cars. He seized eight cars from the suspect.
Appreciating his hard work, the city police commissioner appointed him as the Maduravoyal law and order police inspector.
Kumaran Nagar police inspector G S Pushparaj, who was Pandi's his batchmate and roommate, said, "He always said he was proud to wear the uniform and he loved to work as a cop."
He added, "We both got training in Coimbatore along with 96 others. My roll number was 11. Periya Pandi's roll number was 7. He always excelled in all the training courses. We both stayed in the same room in the barracks."
Pandi was living in Nehru Street in Avadi with his family. He is survived by his wife and two sons. His son, Ruban, is a first year student in a city college and the second son is studying in Class VIII.
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