TIRUCHY: Tiruchy SP on Saturday suspended four policemen who had collected a bribe of Rs 1.25 lakh from three persons who possessed airguns for hunting birds for not filing any case against them.

Tiruchy SP V Varun Kumar had formed a special team to curb offences in the Manapparai sub-division headed by Puthanatham SI Leon Ranjith Kumar supported by the policemen Veerapandi (Puthanatham), Shahul Hameed (Vaiyyampatti) and Manikandan (Manapparai).

The team recently conducted a search operation at Chinnakonar Patti near Valanadu, they secured Sadasivam (28) from Pudukkottai, Ramasamy (25) and Nagaraj (33) for hunting birds with air guns and conducted an interrogation.

During the interrogation, the police team had asked the trio to give them Rs 1.25 lakh to spare them from filing a case. Subsequently, they received the money through Vijayakumar, a relative of one of the accused Sadasivam. After confirming, the SP issued susp suspension order to all the four police personnel.