CHENNAI: Sixteen years after a 36-year-old man was tortured in the custody of Kotturpuram police station, which led to his death after a few hours, a sessions court in Chennai on Tuesday convicted five policemen for murdering him and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The convicted policemen are sub-inspector P Arumugam and head constables M Manoharan, B N Harihara Subramanian, Vincent, and Ezhumalai. The last two accused died during trial. The convicted policemen are above 60, and hence not in service anymore.
Around 8 pm on March 12, 2009, the victim, Palani, alias Kutti Palani, was picked up by a team of officers from the police station allegedly for causing nuisance in a drunken state. He returned home at 11.45 pm with at least 20 injuries to his body and died soon after. An FIR was filed against the accused cops which resulted in an inquiry by the sub-divisional magistrate under the Chennai Collector, who later also filed a complaint with the sessions court.
The inquiry report stated that Palani was subjected to physical torture and allowed to go home after his father Ranganathan gave a personal bond. Palani died of shock and pain that arose out of the brutal assault by the policemen.
Investigators found that a false case had been registered against Palani; he was brutally assaulted on his limbs and private parts, as he resisted an attempt by the policemen to take him to a government hospital to obtain a certificate that he was inebriated. The postmortem report of the government doctor indicated that there were 21 injuries to Palani’s body, including on his private parts, which were contusions with abrasions.
The doctor deposed that all the injuries were ‘blunt force’ caused by a rod or lathi; they caused pain, suffering and shock which can cause a heart attack. The marks were also in parallel line shape which indicated that they were tramline injuries caused by lathi assault, the doctor said.
Among the strategies used by counsel for the accused cops was an outrageous attempt to state that the victim was beaten up at the Saidapet police station by an inspector and deputy assistant commissioner of police and that their exclusion from prosecution “created a reasonable doubt”. This was trashed by the court.
The court also pointed out that there were corrections made by the accused cops in the entries pertaining to when the victim was brought to the station, proving their high-handedness. Additionally, a government doctor who supposedly issued a drunkenness certificate testified that Palani had not even been produced before her for examination.
When the accused tried to project that Palani may have suffered injuries due to fights with other persons, including his brothers, the court rejected it, pointing out that no FIR had been filed regarding this.
Before sentencing, the accused cops, who are now aged 60 plus, requested leniency citing their medical conditions, which include diabetes, kidney and hernia issues. Another cited his son’s impending marriage in February, while another said he had three unmarried sisters.
The court refused to entertain their pleas and pointed out that the five accused cops took the law into their own hands and broke it by exceeding their limit in brutally assaulting a young man. The three (alive) convicts were also fined Rs 10,000 each.