Tamil Nadu youth dies from wounds inflicted during custody; cops booked

In yet another case of alleged police violence, a 25-year-old auto-rickshaw driver from the Tenkasi district in Tamil Nadu, who was “beaten up mercilessly” by policemen during interrogation in a land issue a month ago, succumbed to his injuries.

N Kumaresan from V.K. Pudur town in the district, who was receiving treatment at a Government Hospital in Tirunelveli since June 13, died on Saturday night. Narrating his son’s ordeal, Kumaresan’s father Navaneethakrishnan said his son was heavily assaulted by two policemen – Sub-inspector Chandrashekar and constable Kumar – including in his genital areas when he was summoned by the local police station on May 10.

After outrage and protest by the locals, the two policemen have now been booked, hours after Kumaresan breathed his last. According to an FIR registered, the duo have been booked under Section 174(3) in The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 that deals with doubt regarding the cause of death.

The incident has come to light even as the dust over the death of a father and his son in police custody in Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district refuses to die down.

Read: Hope justice is served: Family of father-son duo 'killed' in custody

“My son never told me about the torture he underwent at the police station on May 10 because the policemen had threatened him that they would book him under the stringent Goondas Act if he spoke about the incident to anyone. I got an inkling only on June 10 when he vomitted blood and complained of breathlessness,” Navaneethakrishnan told DH over the phone.

The father then took Kumaresan to a local hospital on June 10 from where he was shifted to a Government Hospital in Tirunelveli on June 13. It is only while lying on the hospital bed, Navaneethakrishnan said, that his son narrated his ordeal to the doctor who suspected that the injuries inflicted upon him were not normal and asked him to “tell the truth.”

“I was shell-shocked to hear what my son went through at the police station. He told the doctor that the sub-inspector made him sit on the floor and stamped him on his chest and his private parts at the same time. Kumaresan was then asked to sit straight after which the constable punched on his back heavily,” Navaneethakrishnan added.

The father further added that his son told the doctor that he “kept quiet” as the two policemen threatened him of slapping “stringent laws” against him if he told about their excesses to anyone, including his father.

As Kumaresan’s health condition worsened, the 25-year-old was shifted to the ICU of the hospital on June 17, where he breathed his last 10 days later on June 27.

Navaneethakrishnan said he and his son were summoned to the police station on May 9 over a land dispute when the sub-inspector slapped Kumaresan and threatened him with “severe action” if he mustered the courage to question him.

“We want justice for my son’s death. Policemen think they have the right to attack and assault anyone. This incident is similar to the one that took place in Sathankulam. There is no difference. My son died only due to injuries inflicted upon him by the policemen,” Navaneethakrishnan said.