Bouquet from CM for brigand hunter

COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu’s encounter cop S Velladurai, who had shot into fame after hunting down the notorious forest brigand Veerappan in October 2004, has bagged an out of turn Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Police Medal for Gallantry, 2011. Velladurai is presently Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madurai City. The award is being given “as a special case by relaxing Rule 17 (c) of the rules governing the award. The medal will be presented by the Chief Minister at a Medal Parade,” a Home Department order issued recently said. The recipients of the award are eligible to draw a monthly allowance of Rs 300.In police circles, Velladurai is known as a tough policeman who is usually enlisted for special assignments like “dealing” with notorious gangsters.“He earned the tag of an ‘encounter cop’ after he was involved in two major operations in quick succession. In July 2003, he had dared to gun down the notorious Chennai gangster ‘Ayodhyakuppan’ Veeramani in his own den. Accompanied by his colleague Kingsley Devanand, he had fired at Veeramani from close range on the sands of the Marina, which was unthinkable as the Marina was the gangster’s second home,” says a senior police officer.At that time he was a Sub-Inspector of Police posted in Chennai.Next came the killing of the elusive Veerappan in the Sathyamangalam forests in October 2004. Velladurai was among a small team of the Special Task Force which had managed to confront the brigand face to face.After Operation Veerappan, he was among the policemen who were given a one-step out of turn promotion by then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.In 2010, Velladurai was again in the news when he led a team which shot dead two chain snatchers Kaviarasu alias Kaviarasan (30) and Murugan a.k.a ‘Kalmandayan’ Murugan in Madurai. “Even in the 1990s he was involved in encounter operations in Tiruchy,” an officer said.All the encounter killings were mired in controversies with civil rights groups dubbing them as “cold-blooded murders”. But Velladurai, who was even hauled up in court, claims that all his targets including Veerappan were killed in “self-defence”. Curiously, he is unaware that he has been chosen for the Gallantry Medal out of turn. “I have not received any intimation,” he said when Express contacted him for his reaction on Thursday.(With inputs from Gokul Vannan)