A 28-year-old man tried to immolate himself on the Villupuram Court premises on Friday to protest against what he called as torture by policemen whenever there was a theft.
According to sources, the man entered the Judicial Magistrate Court-II premises on Friday and poured kerosene on his person. He was about to set himself ablaze when the policemen grabbed the match box from him. Enquiry revealed the man, Naresh, (28) from Vikravandi had been a habitual offender and there were nearly nine cases booked in his name.
In his statement, Naresh said that he has been appearing for the trial in all the nine cases. Moreover, he said he had given up crime a few months back. But, whenever a theft took place in his locality, the police used to question him.
He further said that, on March 5, the police had come to his house for a similar enquiry. As he was not at home, they took his mother to the station for inquiry. He said that he was mentally disturbed by this and so had resorted to the extreme step to draw the attention of the court to his plight.