COIMBATORE: In a case of suspected custodial death, a 35-year-old Salem woman, detained along with her male partner on the charge of kidnapping a child from Tiruchendur, fainted in custody at the Alandurai police station in Coimbatore on Monday and was declared “brought dead” by doctors of Alandurai GH, police said.
According to sources, Thilagavathi (35) and her partner P Pandiyan (43) were residents of Pethanaickenpalayam near Attur in Salem district. They got separated from their families and were in a live-in relationship for the past two years.
During a visit to the Murugan temple in Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district in the first week of October, the couple befriended a family from Manavazhapuram in Kanniyakumari and abducted their one-and-half-year-old male child, police said.
“They befriended the family at Kulasekarapattinam Mutharaman temple and moved with them to Tiruchendur. On Thursday (October 5), when the family went to wash clothes, Thilagavathi allegedly kidnapped the baby. She was caught on a CCTV camera speeding away on a bike with Pandiyan,” sources said. “We brought the couple to the Alandurai police station based on a tip-off from the Thoothukudi police,” a senior police officer said.
Magistrate may probe cause of woman’s death in Kovai
“They admitted to their involvement in child trafficking. The woman collapsed at the station and was rushed to hospital but she was declared dead. A case has been booked under Section 176 (1)(A) CrPC (inquiry by magistrate into the cause of death). We have CCTV recordings of the station and they will be shared during the inquiry,” a senior police officer said.
Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police L Balaji Saravanan said a case was registered against the couple in the child abduction case under Section 363 (Punishment for kidnapping) of IPC and a special team was formed to investigate the case. Police tracked the phone signals, and traced the couple to Velliangiri foothills and alerted Alandurai police.
While senior police officers in Chennai, Coimbatore and Thoothukudi failed to give details, sources said she consumed a white colour powder when she was surrounded by police. Thilgavathi had three pending theft cases in Namakkal, sources said.
Repeated attempts to contact DGP Shankar Jiwal went in vain. Meanwhile, Salem police rescued the child from Pandiyan’s parents at Thennampillaiyur near Ethapur on Monday evening. After kidnapping the child, Thilagavathi and Pandiyan left the child under the care of Pandiyan’s mother P Pachiyammal (50). Salem district police are in the process of handing over the child and Pachiyammal to the Thoothukudi police.