CHENNAI: An Inspector attached to the Nagoor police station in Nagapattinam district was found guilty of the custodial death of an auto-driver and necessary departmental action, both civil and criminal, is being initiated against him, the first bench of the Madras High Court was informed through a status report, last week.
After going through the report, the bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh granted two months’ time to the Nagapattinam SP to complete the probe and posted the matter for compliance on June 7.
The bench was passing orders on a PIL from Ossie Fernandes, co-convener of Campaign for Custodial Justice and Abolition of Torture, who sought appropriate action against inspector NS Rajendran attached to the Nagoor police station for brutally attacking auto-driver Suresh and who demanded payments of Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the victim’s family. The report said the matter was forwarded to the DIG of Police on February 25 for final orders.
According to petitioner, Suresh parked his auto near the Vanjur checkpost on December 31, 2013 for fitness certificate. Around 7 pm, Rajendran, who was passing by, directed him to remove the auto. As Suresh tried to justify his action, Rajendran beat him up brutally in front of the general public and took him to the Nagoor police station, where he was beaten up again. Suresh sustained serious injuries and was taken to the local government hospital, where he was declared dead. Hence, the PIL.
When the matter came up on July 28, 2015, the government told the judges that two days earlier, that is, on July 25, a financial relief of Rs 5 lakh was sanctioned to the family of Suresh, of which Rs 2 lakh was to be kept in an interest-accruing three-year deposit, while a sum of Rs 1 lakh each was to be kept for the benefit of the two children each for a period of five years.