Over a week after Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi witnessed brutal police shootings of civilians during demonstrations against the Sterlite copper plant, Gandhimathi, a 40-year-old woman from Post and Telegraph Colony, made a call to her brothers in Anna Nagar. As darkness descended over the town on the evening of May 23, 2018 Gandhimathi had heard about indiscriminate police violence in the area. “Please stay indoors. The police are beating everyone. People are throwing stones. Please don’t come out,” she told them in a panic. As she was narrating what she had heard from friends and neighbours, the line went dead.
Bharath, who was serving a life term for murder at the Palayamkottai Central Prison had been out on parole for ten days for a wedding in the family. As he usually does when he is out on parole, he had gone to his older brother Jayakumar’s house to spend time with his nephew, Soundar. Jayakumar’s house is in Anna Nagar, an area that witnessed ceaseless police crackdown in the aftermath of the police shootings on May 22 last year. Visuals captured on phone cameras showed dozens of young men being dragged onto the streets and beaten by the police with lathis. Even as he was on the phone with his sister, police officers entered Jayakumar’s house and dragged Bharath out of there, kicking and beating him.
Sitting in the sunny verandah outside her house, Gandhimathi says that Bharath (36) had come out on parole only on the May 17, 2018. Her aged mother, Muthumalai Esther, sits on a coir-wired cot nearby. “He was forcefully taken from my other son’s house. There were lots of policemen. They were knocking from door to door. They knocked on their neighbour’s door and beat the neighbour. Then they heard a dog barking in Jayakumar’s house so they demanded that he open the gate. Jayakumar came out and told them that neither his brother nor his son had gone to any protest and begged them to leave. But the police kicked the gate down and entered. They beat both my sons and my grandson,” she alleges, her voice quivering.
Soon after they heard of his arrest, the family called the Village Administrative Officer who directed them to call the prison. “We immediately left to the SIPCOT police station in a car. There they told us to go to the Thoothukudi South police station. I went there and asked them, ‘Is this fair what you have done? You have beaten and brought him when he was inside the house.’ They told me to go home, saying they will leave him after some time. ‘Go, go’ they said. They chased us away. They never allowed us anywhere near the station,” recalls Gandhimathi. The family alleges that Bharath was brutally tortured by the police.
(Police personnel baton charge at a protestor/ PTI)
A body full of injuries
The following day, Bharath was admitted to the Thoothukudi General Hospital with a body full of injuries. “She didn’t show him to me at the big hospital.” frowns Muthumalai Esther, pointing to her daughter. “We didn’t tell our mother for two days. The flesh in his legs were torn apart and hanging. That’s how much they had beat him. If we had shown her, she would have died,” Gandhimathi says, lowering her voice.
On May 30, the family received a call from the police, telling them that Bharath had died. He had killed himself in prison, they said. The news came as a shock to the family who had still not been told why he was arrested in the first place. Not trusting the police, Gandhimathi and her family approached the State Human Rights Commission in Chennai. Gandhimathi says, “His post mortem report says that there are injuries in 25 to 30 places on his body. But there is nothing near the neck, only a very small line. We went to the State Human Rights Commission all the way to Chennai. I told the police, ‘I won’t take his body, you only beat him to death.’ I told them, ‘the whole of last week you beat him. You have hung him.’”
Slamming the logic behind the police arrest, Gandhimathi states, “He has been in prison for 14 years. After the wedding was over, he had to go back to prison. He had ten day (of parole). Only if behaves well, he will be able to get released on account of good behaviour. He didn’t go for any protest.”
Bharath’s mother is dependent on the care of her son and daughter; the government has not announced compensation for the family.
Mohan of People’s Watch, a Madurai-based Human Rights NGO who has been helping the family alleges that Bharath was a victim of the police crackdown in Anna Nagar. Mohan alleges, “They assumed he was also from Anna Nagar and they arrested him. He was out on parole and then lodged at Perurani jail. There is proof of all this. He was beaten in the Thoothukudi South police station.” He adds that this was a common theme for many arrests. “Any and all able-bodied males were taken and beaten. Many houses had put a lock outside their homes and sat inside in fear of the police.” he alleges.
Bharath’s family did not claim his body for nearly a month— he died on May 30— hoping that there would be some action. Apart from a registered police complaint, little else has happened by way of justice. “We all went to District Collector’s office but they never got back to us. No one took any action.” says Gandhimathi as her mother adds, “A year after he was beaten, my grandson is still taking medicines for injuries to his hand and chest. Imagine how much they would have beat my son.”
Read: Remember Thoothukudi: My fight for justice is under surveillance, says Snowlin’s mother
Also Read: Remember Thoothukudi: A year later, no justice in sight for families of the dead
Source: The News Minute