Chennai: A chilling case of illegal police torture that resulted in the death of a 27-year-old man, Ajith Kumar, in Sivaganga district has rocked Tamil Nadu. Five policemen have been arrested in connection with the case. Amid massive outrage and displeasure expressed by the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench), Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the incident.
Ajith Kumar’s misfortune began on June 27 when an elderly woman Sivakami and her daughter Nikita visited the famous Madapuram Badrakaliaman Temple near Tirupuvanam. Nikita had handed over her car key to Ajith Kumar, working as a contractual security guard at the temple, requesting him to park it. The young man did not know to drive a car and sought the help of his friends. He later handed over the car key to Nikita.
A while later the two women alleged that about 10 sovereign of gold ornaments were missing from the handbag placed in the car.
Acting on the women’s oral complaint, the Tirupuvanam police picked up Ajith Kumar, his brother Naveen and a few others and took them to an undisclosed location and allegedly used third degree methods to extract a confession from them. Ajith Kumar and others were let off in the evening.
However, on June 28, a special police team once again detained Ajith Kumar and took him to various places where they were thrashed with lathis and rods. “Unable to bear the pain and hoping for a reprieve from the raining blows, my brother claimed he had hidden the jewels at the temple goshala. The police team then took him to the goshala where he told them the truth – that he had lied about the jewels as he was unable to bear the beatings. This angered the police and they beat him repeatedly,” Naveen told journalists.
Ajith Kumar collapsed and the police bundled him and left him with temple authorities. The temple staff took him to a private hospital where doctors seeing the nature of injuries refused to admit him. He was then taken to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, where doctors declared him “brought dead”.
Reports from the ground suggested that Ajith Kumar’s body had more than 30 injury marks including on his anus, reminding the people of a chilling custodial death of a father and son at Sattankulam a few years ago.
It was only on Saturday that local media took note of the case as there was no police record about Ajith Kumar being formally detained. Subsequently, the issue became big with opposition parties stepping up pressure on the Stalin Government.
The Government initially responded by suspending six policemen on Sunday night and followed it up with a late night arrest of five of them on Monday.
As it became clear that the issue was getting out of hand, the Sivaganga Superintendent of Police was kept on compulsory wait and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, on whose instruction the policemen claimed to have taken up the case, was suspended on Tuesday. The case was transferred to the CB-CID.
The Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) insisted that senior officers involved in the case must not be spared. It raised uncomfortable questions to the State.
Following this, the Chief Minister announced that the case was being handed over to the CBI.
