The Madras High Court today directed the state Home Secretary to grant Rs two lakh interim compensation to a victim of custodial torture and forward his complaint to the DGP to be entrusted with a competent officer not below the rank of DSP,CB-CID for action.
Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, before whom the petition of custodial torture filed by Poovarasu of Vellore district came up, said in his order that the court was convinced that the investigation into the matter has to be entrusted to an independent agency to ensure a fair investigation to bring to book the offenders.
The judge also directed the Home Secretary to issue appropriate direction to transfer the case on the file of the Kaveripakkam Police Station, Arakonam Taluk, Vellore district, to CB-CID and entrust it to the same officer to probe the complaint given by Poovarasan.
Earlier, the court had directed Inspector Kandiban of Kaveripakkam Police Station to produce medical records in the case related to custodial torture.
After going through the medical records, the judge said the injuries sustained by the petitioner were inflicted on September 23 last year at Kaveripakkam Police Station by three unknown and two known persons with wooden stick/rod.
"Therefore, till the investigation is completed by CB-CID and a final report is filed, the petitioner is entitled to an interim compensation," the judge said and directed the state Home Secretary to pay Rs two lakh as interim compensation.
The petitioner submitted that since he was exposing illegal sand mining in the area by persons with the help of Inspector Kandiban, a section in the police were against him.
The petitioner also submitted that since he belonged to Scheduled Caste, non-dalit and Vanniar community members were against him. He submitted that on September 23, around 11.30 pm he was woken up by a team of policemen, including Kandiban, and they started beating him causing severe injuries.
They later took him to the police station and continued the torture and charged him under various sections of IPC.
Later he was taken to District Munsif and Judicial Magistrate, Walajahpet. However, seeing his physical condition, the Magistrate directed police to get a medical opinion from the government hospital, in which it was recorded that he sustained multiple injuries because of the assault.
