Vijayalakshmi Amma, an 82-year-old woman from Koyilandi (Kozhikode District) is the widow of the late Mr. Balakrishnan Nair, a sub-inspector of police who served under Kerala Police in stations in Kasaragod district. Mr. Nair had secured President of India’s Gallantry Award for his extraordinary bravery. The award consists of a gold medal along with a monthly cash incentive, which started as twenty-five rupees later got revised to one hundred rupees. Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Amma has been fighting for the last four decades to secure this monthly allowance from the Kerala Police department. Having failed to get justice, she has now approached the Human Rights’ Foundation of Udupi to get redressal.
Mr. Balakrishnan Nair graduated from St Aloysius College Mangaluru in 1951 and immediately got selected for the post of sub inspector in Bundar Police Station. Later, he worked in Hampanakatta and Badiadka stations. As he was in Kasaragod at the time of reorganisation of states, he came under the Kerala Police force. In the year 1961, while working in Manjeshwar station, he got information about an inter-state dacoit planning to rob a house in Badiadka. He rushed to the place along with the police informer, Mohammad, to nab the dacoit. The cornered dacoit shot with his pistol, which hit Mohammad in the eye. Unmindful of the danger to him from the dacoit’s pistol, the unarmed Nair, rushed forward, caught the culprit, and put in police lock up. Immediately thereafter he carried, in his vehicle, a profusely bleeding Mohammad to a hospital in Mangaluru. This timely intervention helped save the life of Mohammad, although the injured eye could not be saved.
