Tamil Nadu: Marathon man C Sylendra Babu scales police peak

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s DGP-designate C Sylendra Babu will win popularity contest hands down among police personnel and campuses across the state. Such is his stature, every time he attends police and non-police events, his entry triggers an audience-applause that takes a full two minutes to subside.
Devoted to fitness, Babu is an in-demand motivational speaker who has penned more than a dozen books on how to crack the civil services examination and how to stay fit. At book fairs, the stalls selling his books see footfalls equalling superstar-authors. His marathon cycling – a few weeks ago he pedalled from Chennai to Kanyakumari – and running have a big following among enthusiasts, activists and those aspiring to embrace a career in police.
Babu, a native of Kanyakumari district, is an MSc (agriculture), MBA and a PhD on missing children. A polyglot, this 1987-batch officer has had an eventful career, having handled crucial positions in Chennai city police, coastal security group, railways and fire and rescue service. During the 2015 floods in Chennai, he led a rescue team and did not hesitate a moment to wade into neck-deep water to save people in the suburbs.
Babu is an expert law and order officer who managed to persuade even a livid former chief minister M Karunanidhi to withdraw his road roko agitation on Anna Salai. Babu’s stint as commissioner of Coimbatore city is remembered for the encounter-killing of one of two men involved in the rape and murder of a school girl and her brother. It was his quick-fix solution to douse raging public anger at the twin murders. As coastal security group chief, he built a reliable network of police stations, force and tools to insulate the long Tamil Nadu coast from incursions.
Babu is recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service and President’s Police Medal for Excellence in Public Service. He has also won several shooting as well as track and field competitions, and led Indian athletic contingents to international events.