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The Fifth Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai on Friday sentenced four police personnel to a total of 11 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) in the case pertaining to the 2019 custodial torture and death of a 17-year-old boy in the hands of the S.S. Colony police in Madurai. Fifth Additional District and Sessions Judge R. Joseph Joy sentenced the then Inspector S. Alexraj, then Special Sub-Inspector R. Ravichandran, then head constable S. Ravichandran, and then Grade I constable C. Satheeshkumar to 11-year rigorous imprisonment. The judge also imposed a fine of ₹12,000 on each of them. They were sentenced to 10-year RI for the offence under Section 304 (II) (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and one-year RI under Section 343 (Wrongful confinement for three or more days) of the Indian Penal Code. The judge said the sentences would run consecutively. Further, the judge directed the CB-CID, which investigated the case, to add three other police personnel: the then Inspector M. Arunachalam and Sub-Inspectors P. Kannan and K. Prem Chandran, both retired, as accused in the case for helping destroy evidence. The judge directed the Director-General of Police to suspend Mr. Arunachalam in order to ensure a fair trial. The judge directed the CB-CID to conduct a probe and file a final report. The judge also took a serious view of the lapses in the investigation conducted by the first Investigating Officer in the case, the then Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, S. Rajeswari, (currently Inspector-General of Police, Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board) and directed the DGP to initiate disciplinary action against her. The judge directed the Director of Medical Education to take disciplinary action against Dr. S. Jayakumar of the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH), Madurai, for falsely stating in the accident register that there were no external injuries on the youth’s body and against Dr. A. Srilatha, the then Resident Medical Officer of GRH, for handing over the body to the police without conducting a post-mortem. The judge said it was a fit case for awarding compensation. Considering that the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had directed the State to pay compensation of ₹25 lakh to the family of the victim, and the State had preferred an appeal against the Single Bench order, the judge said a separate direction was not passed regarding the compensation. In 2019, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had ordered the CB-CID to investigate the custodial torture and resultant death of Muthu Karthik. The boy was picked up by the S.S. Colony police for an inquiry into an alleged jewellery theft, kept in illegal custody for three days, and subjected to torture. He died of injuries at the GRH, where he was being treated. The court had observed that the police, the GRH, and the Juvenile Justice Board had not acted fairly in the case, while ordering a CB-CID probe. Sentence welcomed Addressing journalists following the court verdict, M. Jeya, mother of Muthu Karthik, from Kochadai in Madurai district said she welcomed the judgment. She said justice was rendered after a six-year legal battle. She said nobody should go through what she had gone through and hoped that this judgment served as a deterrent. Henri Tiphagne, executive director of People’s Watch, a civil rights outfit, also welcomed the judgment. He urged the State government to take steps to ensure such incidents do not repeat. He urged it to provide a government job to Ms. Jeya’s other son. Advocate R. Karunanidhi, who represented Ms. Jeya before the High Court, welcomed the further set of directions given by the judge in the case.
