Madurai
People’s Watch, a human rights monitoring organisation, has accused top police officials of Madurai city of having conspired to hide evidence in more than one way in the custodial death of an autorickshaw driver A. Manikandan, reported on June 29.
Its Executive Director, Henry Tiphagne, said that after the death of a boy, Muthu Karthik, under S.S. Colony police custody in January, Manikandan’s death under Karimedu police custody was the second one in the city in less than six months.
“The police had no business to torture the youth who was booked under Section 75 of City Police Act. After brutally torturing him, he was let out on payment of fine. But, again he was picked up by the police as he had a scuffle with someone,” Mr. Tiphagne said.
Stating that the victim was again tortured at the police station, Mr. Tiphagne said that the police had called his father, Andichamy, over phone, asking him to come to the police station at around 2 a.m. to take back his son home. “As his aged father could not go the station at the dead of the night, his daughter, Vijayalakshmi, had gone there only to see her brother unable to walk due to the torture,” he added.
Ms. Vijayalakshmi said that Manikandan had pleaded with her to take him home. Though she sought to take him to hospital, the police refused claiming that he was only pretending to be injured.
However, the next morning, the police called the family claiming that Manikandan was not feeling well. “The police made the poor family members run from pillar to post, from the police station to various wards of the Government Rajaji Hospital. They did not inform the family that he was dead. Only when they attempted to shift the body stealthily to the mortuary, the family members came to know about his death,” Mr Tiphagne said.
“While the custodial death could be due to brutal attack by the police personnel of the station, all top officers, right from the Commissioner of Police to the Assistant Commissioners, conspired to hide the crime from the family. Despite the fact that it was a death due to custodial torture, the police ensured that the postmortem was done within 30 minutes that too around 11 p.m., contrary to all known medico-legal procedures,” he said.
While the family members wanted to bury the body, a large posse of police ensured that it was forcibly cremated to prevent re-postmortem, Mr. Tiphagne alleged.
The police attempted to threaten the family members by summoning Mr. Andichamy to the Commissioner’s Office on July 2, even when the magisterial enquiry was on.
Mr. Tiphagne said that District Legal Services Authority should ensure free legal aid to the family of those who die in police custody till necessary actions are initiated in all courts of law.
