Chennai: The city has lost one more policeman to Covid-19, taking the count to five.
Special Sub Inspector (SSI), V Pandi Muni (54), a resident of Pozhichalur and attached to Kundrathur police station as Law and Order SSI, died late last night due to coronavirus infection.
He had joined service in 1986. Pandi Muni had a paralytic attack a few months ago.
On 27 July he had gone for a general health check and got himself tested for the infection.
Two days later his result had come as positive.
He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Teynampet. However, his condition worsened on 5 August and he passed away.
He is survived by his wife Muthulakshmi (50), son Sethu (32) who is working in the USA and daughter Sudha (29).
In Tamilnadu, policemen who are on the frontline of duty against the spread of coronavirus have taken several hits with many of them testing positive.
According to Police Foundation India, in the Tamilnadu force 3,000 have tested positive for the virus and 40 of them are quarantined.
Across the State, 1,250 police personnel have recovered from Covid-19 and re-joined duty in the past few months.
Pandi Muni is the fifth police personnel from the city to lose his life to Covid-19. The first casualty was on 17 June, when S Balamurali, Inspector of police, Mambalam passed away.
On 1 July, R Manimaran (57), an SSI of Pattinampakkam police station succumbed to Covid-19 and five days later, G Nagarajan (32), an Armed Reserve Consatble of city police died. On 13 July, SSI Gurumurthy had died.