HC serves notice to State government over custodial death

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday served a notice to the State government in a plea seeking compensation for a man, who died due to alleged police torture, and also disciplinary action against the police.

The petition filed by M Rengammal, BB Kulam, Madurai, came up for hearing with Justice V Sivagnanam. The petitioner stated that her son Easwaran, who was a carpenter, died on January 19, 2022, by self-immolation near the Ambedkar statue next to Tallakulam police station, as he was unable to bear the threat and torture of police.

Further, the petitioner stated that the Tallakulam police received a false complaint from the defacto complainant wilfully from the VAO and instituted this fake complaint against him to escape the clutches of law.

Based on a petition filed earlier on March 7, the case was transferred to the CB-CID Madurai. The petition accused cops — Pulikutty Ayyanar, Ranjith, Senthil Kumar and Durai Murugan — of torturing Easwaran, which drove him to commit suicide. It also says the lack of disciplinary action against the police by the DGP was a travesty of justice. So far, there’s no response for the representation.

The petitioner sought Rs 25 lakh as compensation, and also asked for appropriate disciplinary action to be initiated against the Tallakulam Inspector and four other cops. She wanted recovery of the compensation from them within the time period stipulated by the Court. The Judge directed the Principal Secretary, Home Department and the DGP to respond and adjourned the case for 4 weeks.