Press "Enter" to skip to content

Kin allege custodial torture behind death of TN youth, cops deny

Local police denied allegations of torture and said that Ajith of Nagercoil, had consumed poison and was taken to the hospital by them.

The family of a 22-year-old youth from Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, have alleged that he died of police custodial toruture, on June 25, Saturday. However, the police refuted the allegations and said that the man had consumed poison and was merely taken to hospital by the police.

According to police sources, 22-year-old Ajith had attacked his neighbour on April 16, and was arrested for the same, the next day. He was later given conditional bail for 15 days, on June 17. Ajith had to sign the station register at Kulasekaram police station at 10 am every day.

On June 23, Ajith had gone to the police station at around 1 pm and asked for his mobile phone, which he said was kept at the police station. When the police staff at the station said they did not have his phone, he left the station only to return a while later and tell the police that he had consumed poison. “He also took something out of a plastic cover and ate it. Seeing this, the police called an ambulance. As there was a delay before the arrival of the ambulance, he was taken to the Kulasekaram government hospital in another private vehicle. He was later shifted to the Asaripallam government hospital, where he died on June 25,” the police said in a press statement.

A case has been registered based on a complaint by Ajith’s father that his son died under suspicious circumstances. “All these are recorded in the station’s CCTV and a probe is underway in the regard,” the police said.

Addressing the media, Ajith’s family members, said the police claimed that Ajith had consumed poison and asked, “Will anyone who consumes poison go and stand in the police station? We have doubts about his death. We suspect that the police beat him to death.”

In a petition given to the Kanyakumari district Superintendent of Police, Ajith’s father Sasikumar alleged that the police forced him to accompany them to the hospital where Ajith was admitted and said that they had the ‘right to arrest him if he refused to go with them’. “I later went to the Asaripallam government hospital with my relatives and family, and the police took me alone inside the hospital and asked me to identify my son. They also forced me to sign papers, in which I don’t know what was written. My son left for the police station happily and there was no way he consumed poison. My son must have been attacked by the police and forced to consume poison,” he said.

DSP Ganesan, speaking to TNM said, “Our inquiry did not find anything to prove that he was beaten up by the police. He had got poison from a shop and consumed it,” he said.

Source: The News Minute