Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has disposed of a batch of petitions filed by T. Arunkumar, one of the victims of the Ambasamudram custodial torture incident. He and a few others were subjected to custodial torture by a team led by the then Ambasamudram Assistant Superintendent of Police Balveer Singh (since suspended).
Justice D. Nagarjun was informed by the State that the investigation had been completed. The chargesheet was ready and kept pending only for getting clearance from the government, in respect of sanction, as the accused was an IPS officer. A copy of the charge sheet was submitted to the court in a sealed cover.
Taking note of the submission, the court observed that since the investigation had been completed and a copy of the charge sheet was ready, no further directions could be passed and closed the petition that sought a direction to the CB-CID to file the final report before the Judicial Magistrate concerned.
The court disposed of the petition that sought a copy of the inquiry report. IAS Officer P. Amudha had conducted the inquiry. The State told the court that the copy of the inquiry report will certainly be given to the petitioner, once the chargesheet was filed before the court concerned.
It was submitted that prior to the filing of the chargesheet, in case the copy of the inquiry report was given to the petitioner, it will have an adverse effect in respect of the request made by the authorities for granting of sanction. The court disposed of the petition directing the authorities to hand over the copy of the inquiry report soon after the chargesheet was filed before the court concerned.
The court also disposed of the petition seeking compensation as per the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The State submitted that the petitioner neither belonged to a Scheduled Caste nor a Scheduled Tribe. He was a converted Christian. Therefore, he was not entitled for compensation.
Taking note of the same, the court observed that the compensation cannot be granted under the provisions of the Act and disposed of the petition.
The petitioner said he and a few others were picked up by the police in the name of an inquiry in an attempt to murder case and were subjected to inhumane treatment by a team of police personnel led by Mr. Balveer Singh.
