P Kavitha, Puduchatram Police Station, Cuddalore

In 2020, a man’s body was found on NH-45 in Veppur. While it could have been closed as an accident case, inspector Kavitha, who was in-charge of the Veppur police station then, suspected murder, and post-mortem results confirmed her assumption.Three days later, the deceased was identified by his wife and probes led to the arrest of a father-son duo in Tiruttani. “The accused Satyanarayana if Vriddhachalam, a soothsayer, had borrowed Rs 80,000 from the deceased Ravichandran of Veppur. But when he demanded the money back, Satyanarayana and his juvenile son murdered him and dumped the body on the NH to make it look like an accident,” the inspector had said. The case is in the final stages of trial at the Madras HC. The inspector earlier won the government’s Anna Medal for gallantry a few years ago.

•A Anbarasi, all-women inspector in Tiruvannamalai In 2017, a nine-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a 27-year-old neighbour in Gudiyattam, where Anbarasi was the inspector. The inspector registered a case and arrested the accused. However, the victim’s family later backtracked. “The challenge was to convince them and make sure that they cooperate for investigation,” says the inspector. The accused Manikandan was convicted in 2020 and awarded 18 years of imprisonment.

•P R Chidambaramurugesan, Inspector (Crime), Chromepet

In 2016, a man named Balamurugan was beaten to death with a cricket bat in Vepery and Inspector Chidambaramurugesan, who was in-charge of Vepery police station, investigated the case and arrested the suspects with the help of CCTV footage. All eight accused were convicted and sentenced to life a few months ago. In 2013, he won the CM medal for excellence in investigation and the Real Investigation Award in 2012 in an event conducted by CB-CID.

G Manivannan, Inspector (Intelligence), has been selected, for cracking a case of murder for gain in Triplicane in 2014 and the accused were convicted of the crime in March this year. The accused were awarded 10 years of imprisonment apart from Rs 1 lakh fine. Manivannan also played a crucial role in the arrest of Sathyamoorthy, close confidant of Veerappan. R Jayavel of Vengal police station won the award for his investigation into a murder for gain reported in Periapalayam last year. The other awardees are Inspectors C Kanmani, Special Branch, Nagercoil, K Kalaiselvai, Tiruporur Circle Police Station, M Saravanan, CB-CID, Nagapattinam.