MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently ordered the state government to pay `18 lakh as compensation to the family of a man who died during police custody in Sivaganga in 2017. Justice P Dhanabal passed the order on a petition filed by the man’s wife, S Santhi, seeking compensation alleging that her husband died due to custodial torture.
According to Santhi’s petition, her husband Subramanian (51) worked as a goldsmith. On April 11, 2017, Kundrakudi police brought her husband back to her house with his clothes torn. He has also sustained multiple injuries on his body.
The police claimed that her husband was involved in the murder of a 74-year-old woman and that he also stole her jewelry, she added. They searched her husband’s workshop and seized the customer’s jewellery saying that they were stolen ornaments and once again took her husband and son to the police station. Later in the day, she got a call from her son saying that Subramanian had died.
However, the police claimed that they caught Subramanian during a vehicle check on April 11, 2017. While inquiring about his torn clothes and injuries, they came to know that he was involved in chain snatching two days ago and was beaten up by the public and that he was also responsible for a murder and a few other thefts as well, they claimed.
When he was being taken to Tiruchy in connection with his other crimes, he complained of chest pain and was rushed to Karaikudi GH, where he was reported dead. The police repeatedly claimed that Subramanian consumed cyanide and died due to a heart attack. Justice Dhanabal found the police’s theory unbelievable. Since it is proved that Subramanian died when he was in police custody, the government is liable to pay compensation, the judge held.