TIRUNELVELI: People’s Watch Executive Director and Advisor of the Joint Action Against Custodial Torture (Tamil Nadu) Henri Tiphagne said he would initiate contempt proceedings against the state government over its failure to provide the full report of the high-level probe by IAS officer P Amudha in the Ambasamudram custodial torture, involving former ASP Balveer Singh.
Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Tiphagne said while the high court ordered the handing over of the full report of Amudha, the victims were only given an interim report which lacks annexure and statements of the victims.
“We want to know what is preventing the government from giving these reports to the victims, despite HC direction. In another case, the HC directed the government to give the victims the CCTV footage of Ambasamudram and Vikramasingapuram police stations within 15 days,” he said.
“While Amudha’s report hinted at custodial torture, the CB-CID did not include these parts in its chargesheet. While the custodial torture victims include people from the Scheduled Caste, the CB-CID intentionally added SC police officers as accused to avoid inclusion of the sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. As per Amudha’s report, there are non-SC accused in this particular case,” he added.
Tiphagne also demanded the inclusion of Dr Jaishankar, the medical officer at the Ambasamudram GH, as an accused.
Accused appear for fifth hearing
Tirunelveli: Former Ambasamudram Assistant Superintendent of Police Balveer Singh and 11 other police personnel, accused of removing the teeth of suspects and torturing them in custody at the Ambasamudram, Kallidaikurichi, and Vikramasingapuram police stations, appeared before the Judicial Magistrate I, Tirunelveli for the fifth hearing in the case on Wednesday. According to sources, of the 14 accused persons in four different cases, police inspector Rajakumari and sub-inspector Murugesan failed to appear before Magistrate D Thiriveni. The next hearing is scheduled for March 28. Former Cheranmahadevi Sub-Collector MD Shabbir Mohammed Alam and senior IAS officer P Amudha probed the allegations. Recently, their interim reports were handed over to the victims. The reports revealed that the teeth of some suspects were indeed removed at the police stations. The state government had recently revoked Singh’s suspension. ENS