CHENNAI: Amid mounting criticism on the DMK government for the custodial death of B Ajithkumar in Sivaganga, the AIADMK on Tuesday demanded a CBI probe into the matter. The opposition party also urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take up the matter suo motu and initiate an investigation.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a post on X, said that the postmortem report of Ajithkumar shockingly revealed that there were 18 injuries from head to toe. The report further said the death occurred due to severe pressure applied to the neck, he added.
“This is an outright murder committed by the police force under the Stalin government. All 25 custodial deaths that have occurred under Stalin’s regime are blatant violations of human rights,” he added.
Palaniswami further said that the police, in the related FIR, had claimed that Ajithkumar died of a seizure.
“This is not a deja vu. The Stalin government has used the same lie once before — the death of Vignesh in police custody in Chennai in 2022 was also said to be due to a seizure,” he added.
Meanwhile, BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran wrote a letter to the NHRC chairperson urging a high-level independent investigation into the incident, while alleging an ‘alarming increase’ in the number of custodial deaths in Tamil Nadu.
Nagenthran, in his representation to the NHRC, stated that the custodial death of Ajithkumar is not an isolated incident.
“Tamil Nadu has witnessed an astronomical surge in custodial deaths in recent years. Human rights activists and independent monitors have counted this as the 24th (or possibly 25th) custodial death under the current government’s tenure,” Nagenthran said.
The BJP leader further added that the NHRC should seek a detailed report from the Tamil Nadu government on all custodial deaths recorded in the past five years, including details on the action taken and status of prosecutions. It should also order compensation and rehabilitation measures for the families of all victims of custodial violence, he said.