MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the judicial magistrate of Ambasamudram to furnish copies of certain documents relating to two cases registered by the VK Puram and Ambasamudram police against some men who were allegedly subjected to custodial torture by former Ambasamudram ASP Balveer Singh.
Justice G Ilangovan passed the order on the petitions filed by one T Arun Kumar, one of the alleged victims of the said custodial torture, seeking copies of the FIR, remand report, arrest memo, arrest card, medical examination report, and footnotes of the judicial magistrate concerned among others, pertaining to the above-mentioned cases.
Kumar stated that he is one of the accused in the 'attempt to murder' case registered by the VK Puram police. He claimed he was taken to the Ambasamudram police station, where Singh pulled out his teeth and assaulted him, causing bleeding injuries. He said he needed the above documents in order to defend himself and also prosecute the IPS officer for the torture. Though he is not a party to the other case registered by the Ambasamudram police, he sought the documents of that case as well, claiming that the accused in the said case were also tortured by Singh along with him.
Though he filed an application before the lower court to get the documents, his application was returned by the lower court on the same date with an endorsement that the said documents could not be produced at this stage as the chargesheet has not been filed in the cases. Hence, he approached the HC.
Justice Ilangovan noted that at the time of the hearing, he found that even the senior police officers were briefing the additional public prosecutor in the case. The reason is that it is yet another case of brutality alleged to have been exhibited by the Senior Police in the IPS rank, to the accused in both matters, the judge observed. He opined that the lower court ought to have heard the applications before returning them.
Though the additional public prosecutor opposed Kumar's plea by saying that he is not entitled to some of the requested documents, the judge observed, "Right to know, is a human right, need not be granted by the State in the form of legislation."
Leaving out the barred documents, he directed the magistrate to provide Kumar with the FIR copies, remand orders, arrest cards, medical examination report, and footnotes of the magistrate in both cases, along with the permitted portion of the remand report.