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48-Hour Police Drive Checks 15,000, Remands 443 Rowdies

A two-day statewide drive checked 8,626 listed rowdies and 2,924 accused in murder cases, while the Central Zone held 34 history-sheeters after Deepavali.

6 hrs ago

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Updated 2026-11-12, 3:12 PM

Two-day police drive checks 15,000 across TN — Photo: Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay

Tamil Nadu Police checked more than 15,000 people with criminal records in a 48-hour statewide drive on Monday and Tuesday, and remanded hundreds.

Listed rowdies made up the biggest group. Police said they tracked and checked 8,626 of them over the two days, remanded 443 and filed Legal Action Reports against 796 habitual offenders. Officers also watched 2,924 people accused in murder and hurt cases, including some recently released from prison, “to prevent retaliatory crimes and maintain public peace”, as the police statement put it. That led to 163 fresh cases and 167 remands.

The main points

1,624 drug offenders tracked; 77 arrested for selling drugs
1,057 members of organised crime groups checked
73 non-bailable warrants executed
1,859 cases for drinking in open places, with 195 remands

Roads and open-air drinking

The drive ran on the roads too. Police booked 2,865 drunken driving cases. There were 1,243 rash driving cases and 998 for over-speeding. Drones flew in every district and city to spot open-air drinking. The statement gave figures by category and no single total of arrests. Police said “such operations will continue”.

Thirty-four held in the central zone

A separate combing operation across the nine districts of the police’s Central Zone, which takes in Tiruchy, Thanjavur and the delta, ran from Deepavali day on 8 November to Monday 9 November. Police arrested 34 history-sheeters, all remanded to judicial custody, and seized weapons and vehicles used in offences over the festival period. Teams checked vehicles at 368 places, searched 693 houses and registered 400 drunk-driving cases. Pudukkottai district booked the most cases with eight, followed by Tiruchy with seven, Tiruvarur with five and Perambalur with four. Late on Monday, Thanjavur district police stopped a car on the Cholapuram main road near Kumbakonam during a vehicle check, chased it, and arrested five men; police said they found weapons and that the group was on its way to commit a murder.

The scale is similar to a drive in May, though that one ran a day longer.

In a three-day drive then, the office of the Director General of Police said 15,349 rowdy elements were checked, 3,246 detained for verification and 844 remanded, with 419 drug offenders arrested in 294 cases under the NDPS Act.

A tactic Chennai has used for decades

Mass checks of this kind began as city operations. Chennai police have run overnight “storming operations” against rowdies and history-sheeters since at least the 2000s: Commissioner Letika Saran led one in June 2007 that ended in more than 500 arrests, and R. Sekar ordered a citywide sweep two weeks after taking charge in 2008, arresting more than 1,500 people in a night. The statewide version took shape in September 2021, when DGP C. Sylendra Babu ordered a crackdown codenamed Operation Disarm after a string of beheadings in Tirunelveli and Dindigul. Police said they verified 21,592 history-sheeters and criminals and arrested 3,325 in 52 hours, while Chennai Commissioner Shankar Jiwal ran a 48-hour drive in the city. Under Jiwal, first as Chennai commissioner and later as DGP, the drives ran as DARE (Drive Against Rowdy Elements), and he ordered fresh DARE operations after a twin murder in Mayiladuthurai in February 2025. Chennai Commissioner A. Arun launched a similar push after the murder of BSP state president K. Armstrong in July 2024.

Checked against official sources on 12 November 2026.