MADURAI: A 31-year-old history sheeter allegedly fell into a slushy pond in Madurai early on Thursday and died while attempting to escape from police, sparking allegations of ‘custodial murder’. While the family members of V Dineshkumar staged a dharna in front of the KK Arch in the city, blaming the Anna Nagar station police inspector Flower Sheela and other cops of allegedly subjecting him to ‘custodial torture before killing him’, police said Dineshkumar fell into the ‘vandiyur kanmoi’ in an escape bid.
Based on a complaint filed by the victim’s mother, V Muthulakshmi (52), Anna Nagar police have registered a case under Section 196 BNSS (inquiry by magistrate into the cause of death). The Madurai judicial magistrate is likely to commence the inquiry on Friday.
According to family members, a police team led by Inspector Sheela picked up Dineshkumar from his home at Yagappa Nagar early on Thursday morning as part of Diwali security measures to get ‘good behaviour’ bonds from history sheeters under Section 128 BNSS. Dineshkumar had 12 cases pending against him.
According to the police, when they attempted to change vehicles at the Vandiyur outpost (before taking him to Anna Nagar police station), Dineshkumar allegedly escaped from custody, leading to the fatal incident. Two other history sheeters, S Ajith Kannan (22) and P Prakash (23), were also present at the spot at the time of the incident, police claimed.
According to police sources, immediately after Dineshkumar started running, police gave him a chase, but he fell into the sludge. The cops launched a search but were able to find only his dead body. The fire and rescue services personnel, who later retrieved the body, sent it to the Government Rajaji Hospital. A postmortem may be conducted on Friday.
Dineshkumar's father A Velmurugan told TNIE that the police had cooked up a story to hide the custodial death. The family members demanded criminal action against the inspector, compensation for the family, and a government job for his kin.
Meanwhile, the Joint Action Against Custodial Torture - Tamil Nadu, in a statement, condemned the police for arresting Dineshkumar without any memo or intimation to the family. Dineshkumar had died due to custodial torture, and the inspector and her team must be suspended immediately, the committee said.
