TIRUNELVELI/TENKASI: Stating that the 26-year-old Scheduled Caste youth, who died in Palayamkottai Central Prison on Wednesday, was arrested in a false case and was tortured by the Puliyangudi police, his relatives refused to receive his body from Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH) on Friday. They also said the remand prisoner’s body had several injury marks.
The deceased, M Thangasamy of Puliyangudi in Tenkasi district, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly supplying liquor bottles to Muppulimadathi, a 60-year-old woman, and issuing death threats to police. Claiming that this was a false case, Thangasamy’s younger brother M Eswaran told TNIE, “First of all, the police had not informed us of the arrest.
On Wednesday, the Puliyangudi police told our area ‘nattamai’ that Thangasamy died after slipping inside a toilet due to fits (epilepsy). But my brother did not have a history of fits. When inquired, we came to know that Thangasamy’s two-wheeler, which he had lent to one of our relatives, was seized by the police and he had gone to the station only to recover the vehicle. But the police beat him up there.”
Referring to Eswaran’s affidavit filed in Tirunelveli Judicial Magistrate Court, People’s watch advocate Madasamy, at a presser, said, “The city police deleted a video that showed injuries on Thangasamy’s body, from one of the relatives’ mobile phone.” Perumalpuram police have filed a case. Tenkasi SP ET Samson could not be reached for comments.