Image of Tamil Nadu police

Two news items appeared in the Times of India newspaper, Chennai edition on 18th April, 2008. Both are about the image of police in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

Here is the first one:-

LEGAL NOTICE TO FILM-MAKERS
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: A senior police officer in the city has slapped a legal notice on the producer and director of the film “Nepali”, starring actors Bharath and Meera Jasmine, demanding the removal of certain objectionable portions in the film which portray the police department in bad light.

After watching the flick, Joint Commissioner of Police (North Chennai) M Ravi on Thursday slapped a legal notice on the film’s director V Z Durai and producer Rama Saravanan through his lawyer P Chandrasekharan. The notice alleged that the movie had portrayed the police, prisons and judiciary departments in bad light and warned both the director and producer of appropriate legal action both civil and criminal if they fail to delete the objectionable parts from the film. The notice also asked them to stop screening the movie till deletion. It alleged that in the very beginning of the movie, the National Flag was shown without due respect. The prison jailer was shown walking down the stairs without saluting the Flag, while his subordinates were shown saluting the flag.

The movie also shows a police inspector in uniform attempting to rape the heroine. “The same inspector has been shown stripping his uniform in two scenes. The movie is shot with the intention of creating ill feelings, disharmony and hatred between the police and public which per se is defamatory”, it alleged. The scenes where the hero takes the law into his hand and the comments he makes against the judiciary are also intended to damage the reputation and dignity of the judiciary, the notice said.

In one scene the jailer is shown drinking in jail premises and asking the female jail warden to supply women. “This would create wrong impression in the minds of the public”, the notice said.

Ok, according to the police department, certain portions of the film portray the police department in bad light.

Now pray tell me, does the alleged conduct of a member of the police force of the state in real life as reported in the paper of the same day, enhance the image of police in the eyes of public?

Read this and form your own conclusions:-

Cop is now burglar, robs gold jewels worth lakhs
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Villupuram: A three-member gang of burglars arrested recently was found to include a policeman and a former police photographer from Puducherry. The duo along with a former staff of a cooperative society have been charged with stealing jewellery worth lakhs of rupees, the police said on Thursday.

S Jaganadan (40), an armed reserve policeman, R. Mayilvaganan (42), a former police photographer and Manimaran were arrested by the police for stealing jewellery from houses in Villupuram. Police recovered 30 sovereigns of gold jewels and silver accessories worth Rs 3.5 lakh from the trio and produced them before the district magistrate, who remanded them to judicial custody.

According to the police, a Villupuram district police team led by deputy superintendent of police Dakshinamoorthy found the three men loitering under suspicious circumstances in the town bus stand and detained them for questioning.
During the grilling, the police found that the three men were involved in burglaries in Villupuram. The police also recovered a motorcycle abandoned at a crime scene. The vehicle was registered in Mayilvaganan’s father’s name.

In 1999, Mayilvaganan was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison for his involvement in a burglary in Karaikal, while he was a photographer for the police department. His service with the police was terminated.

Manimaran had also been suspended from the cooperative society for malpractice. The police have registered a case against the three men under sections 457 (housebreaking by night in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code.

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