TN custodial deaths: We have waited long for a law against torture, says Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi

The country was shocked by the recent custodial deaths of a father and son in Thoothukudi’s Sathankulam police station, after having been arrested merely for keeping their shop open beyond lockdown hours and tortured for resisting police highhandedness. DMK’s Member of Parliament
Kanimozhi, who has been at the forefront in demanding justice for the victims, tells DH’s Ahmed Shariff that she has written to the home minister to pass an anti-torture ordinance.

A man and his son were taken by policemen and they came back as lifeless bodies. The incident took place in your constituency, Thoothukudi.

This is not the only incident of custodial death. Every year, in this country, we come across hundreds of such incidents. In 2019, over 1,700 such cases were recorded in India. It’s happening every day all over the country and we have been turning a blind eye to it. We have accepted that this is the way the police will interrogate and somehow, we have not raised questions against it.

In Sathankulam, the father and son belonged to the trader community and they had never had any conflict with the system nor had they any problem with the authorities. And that is why all of us are together raising our voices against what happened.

Listen to DMK Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi here on DH's The Lead podcast:

The police say that they had kept their shop open beyond the stipulated time. But in some of the videos, which were played on news channels, we can see that other shops were open, too,
and autorickshaws were plying. Even if they had kept their shop open late, is this the way the police should be dealing with it? Violence and brutality against ordinary citizens is becoming a regular thing, especially during this pandemic.

The accused policemen are said to be “repeat offenders”. Should not the government have woken up immediately and taken action against them?

Yes, definitely. (But) even before the autopsy, the chief minister stated that the two victims died of breathlessness. A few days before this incident, even in Kovilpatti, areas around Tenkasi and Ettaiyapuram have had cases where the police have arrested people, taken them into custody and beaten them. This (Sathankulam incident) is not the first case in the country, such cases have been happening every day. The central government was supposed to bring in a law against torture. The bill hasn’t been passed yet.

The government should have taken action. People have said that the offenders be booked under murder charges. The government refused to do that till the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court stepped in and the whole investigation was monitored on an hourly basis, practically by the High Court.

They even had to pass two orders in a single day, and we saw how the judicial magistrate was threatened when he went to Sathankulam to inquire what happened. He could not even speak to witnesses. The policemen were threatening him. If the government had stepped in and at least the chief minister had made a strong statement that those responsible would be brought to justice, this couldn’t have happened. One minister even said that it was not even a case of lockup death.

Your party has been at the forefront in demanding justice for the victims. Now that CB-CID has taken over the case and the High Court is monitoring the process, what will be the DMK’s role henceforth?

We have offered all support to the family. I met the family and our party leader Stalin also spoke to them over phone. We have promised them all legal support. We don’t want to interfere in the way they want to take the case forward. We are there to help them and support them, if they want us to, in any way. More than that, I have also written to the National Human Rights Commission and they have also written to the people in the district asking for a report on what exactly happened. And on behalf of my party, I have written to the (Union) home minister that an (anti-torture) ordinance has to be passed, because Parliament is not in session, so that we can at least now stop such incidents from happening. We have waited long enough.

When Parliament convenes, will you raise your voice for the (anti-torture) law?

Definitely, we will insist that the law be passed. I will take up the issue in Parliament and the DMK will raise it.

TN faces Assembly elections in less than a year. Will you promise to carry out police reforms if your party comes back to power?

Definitely. We had brought in police reforms before. I am sure that the DMK will take police reforms seriously. It’s not enough to bring police reforms only in a state. A study has to be done and we have to look at changes throughout the country. We have to understand, and make people understand, and the law-enforcing authorities should also make it very clear that they are only a law-enforcing authority. The police department is not here to mete out justice.