After serving for nine years in various posts in the State, IPS officer K. Annamalai tendered his resignation on Tuesday. He was last posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Bengaluru.
A native of Karur in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Annamalai is a 2011-batch Karnataka-cadre officer.
Talks of him resigning from service to join politics back home had been doing the rounds from the past few days. Mr. Annamalai, in a letter to his colleagues, however, said he was yet to decide on the next step, and all he wanted to do now was spend some time with his family. He also said he wants to get back to farming. He described “the sense of pride” of the khaki as “unparalleled”, and said the job of a police officer includes many challenges and that he enjoyed them, but he had also missed many important functions and could not be there for the people who mattered to him the most. “I just wanted to take some time to enjoy those small things in life which I had missed out — be a good father to my son, get into farming back home, and see whether my sheep still listen to me as I’m no more a cop now,” he stated in the letter.
He said a visit to Kailash Manasarovar last year helped him “set right his priorities in life”. He also added that the death of IPS officer Madhukar Shetty had made him “re-examine his own life”.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Mr. Annamalai thanked the people of the State for giving him an opportunity to serve them. Responding to questions about his aspirations in politics, Mr. Annamalai said he has not spoken to any political party or taken a decision about this. “I waited for the Lok Sabha polls to be over so that I could resign. From the day of my resignation, I am a common man. I want a break for four or five months to spend time with my son. I am also planning to pen a book and involve myself in social work to help educated and unemployed youth,” he said.
Mr. Annamalai was popular in the IPS circles as well as among the general public, and is remembered for his stint as Assistant Superintendent of Police at Karkala, Udupi district, as well as Superintendent of Police in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru. He thanked his colleagues, especially the juniors, for working with him with honesty.
