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‘We want answers’: Friend who recorded TN cop assaulting Murugesan speaks to TNM

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The video shows Murugesan pleading with Periyasamy to stop beating him with the lathi even as Shankar and Sivan attempt to block the SSI from assaulting him.

A disoriented Murugesan is sitting on the road, holding on to Special Sub Inspector Periyasamy’s lathi with his left hand. To his other side, his friends Sivan and Shankar are holding on to his right hand, as they plead with Periyasamy to let Murugesan go. Periyasamy rains blows on Murugesan with his lathi as Sivan and Shankar exclaim in shock, but the assault doesn’t stop. Periyasamy goes around Murugesan who’s still sitting on the road, and hits him from every angle. 

When Murugesan finally manages to stand unsteadily on his feet, the policeman hits him again. And then, Murugesan collapses in the middle of the road, hitting his head hard during the fall. One of his friends stands ready to argue with the policeman for assaulting Murugesan, while the other captures the whole incident on his phone camera. Murugesan died on the same day after he was taken to three different hospitals following the assault, and the post mortem report says he died because of a hemorrhage in his brain — possibly from the force with which he hit his head on the road. Periyasamy has been arrested now, and the Tamil Nadu government has announced a solatium of Rs 10 lakh for Murugesan’s family. But his family and friends are still waiting for answers. 

“There was no reason for the policeman to hit Murugesan so brutally,” says Sivan Babu. Speaking to TNM, the man who recorded the video of the attack says that he managed to videotape the entire incident because the police officers did not realise he was doing so. “I recorded the video without the Special Sub Inspector realising that he was being taped. I kept the mobile in my pocket so he does not get suspicious,” he says. 

Narrating the sequence of events on Tuesday, Sivan Babu says SSI Periyasamy started beating Murugesan because they refused to leave their bike behind. “Three of us — Murugesan, Shankar and I — were travelling on the same bike. We must have been getting back between 5 and 5.30 pm,” Sivan recounts. “We were stopped by the police and were asked to park our bikes on the side. The bike belonged to Murugesan. He then asked why they were seizing the bike, asked the police to search and see if there was anything illegally stashed,” he adds. 

News reports indicated that Murugesan and his friends were drunk, and Murugesan had argued with and abused the police before the violence began. Although no amount of verbal abuse justifies a policeman assaulting a citizen so brutally, Sivan denies this version of events completely, and says his friend just asked the police officer why the bike was being seized. “Murugesan did not abuse the police as is being claimed. Periyasamy started beating him up,” Sivan says. 

Murugesan was then taken to three hospitals before finally got treatment — but he succumbed to his injuries. “He is survived by three children, two daughters and a son. His oldest daughter is studying in class 11 but because of the lockdown, she had discontinued her education. Murugesan was the only breadwinner in the family. He used to run a small fruit stall, selling bananas and apples,” Sivan says. 

While the perpetrator of the attack Periyasamy has been arrested, Sivan says there should be a strong message sent so that more lives are not lost to police excesses. 

Source: The News Minute