Transgression of power: Tamil Nadu man narrates about his torture and violence in police custody

Yesudas, a person from Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi was booked in a double murder case in October 2013. He was released in 2015 by a Tamil Nadu High court as the police couldn’t find any proof for the charges against him. He was subjected to brutal torture in custody for 90 days and released after he was granted bail on February 2, 2014. Speaking to ETV Bharat, he narrated his whole experience of 90 days sufferings in jail.

Thoothukudi (Tamil Nadu): A large number of detainees are suffering from inhuman cruelty in the hands of the police soon after they are arrested. The latest atrocity by the Tamil Nadu police has been reported from Thoothukudi district and it allegedly happened six years ago.

A subsequent probe revealed that a man, identified as Yesudas of Vagaikkulam under Thattaparai police limits in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi was subjected to severe torture at the police station as the cops tried to implicate him in a murder case.

After a couple of years, the names of the real culprits were added to the case, and Yesudas was acquitted as an innocent. He filed a petition at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to re-examine the case and demanded justice. Hearing the petition, the High Court, ordered the case to be re-examined.

Case History

On October 29, 2013, two persons were brutally murdered by some unidentified miscreants at Vagaikkulam village under Thattaparai police station in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi. Following this, police had arrested four persons identified as Yesudas, Emanuel, Varadarajan and Paramasivam of the same locality in this connection.

Yesudas was picked up while he was working as a cashier at a private financial institution headquartered in Kerala on suspicion of being a part of the gang. He was subjected to brutal torture in custody for 90 days and released after he was granted bail on February 2, 2014.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, about custodial torture and his time in jail, Yesudas said," Inside the Pudukkottai police station, I was brutally tortured by the cops. They slapped hard on my chin and ear that I am unable to hear with that ear till date. A constable kicked me in my chest with his leg. Two constables stood on both of my legs. They brutally assaulted me until three of their lathi sticks were broken."

"Every day they were torturing me. One day they beat me brutally and blood started oozing out from my left hand. They took me to the government hospital where the lights were switched off and they took my signature in darkness and then I was produced before the magistrate. I cried a lot telling them I did nothing wrong, but no one listened to me. I could not stand for long because they beat me so hard. I could not do any work and I lost my job. Even if I had falsely admitted that I had only killed, I would not have got beaten so harshly," Yesudas said.

"Emanuel, who was arrested in the murder case, had been the epicentre of enmity in the minds of Inspector Selvam. Emanuel’s mother-in-law owned a plot of land worth Rs 36 lakhs. Inspector Selvam in 2013 pressurised Anthony Pandian to sell it for Rs 10 lakh. In a khapp panchayat, I had advised Emanuel not to sell that land at such a cheap price. This did not go well with the inspector and he named me falsely in a murder case. He has also been torturing me since then," said Yesudas showing his anguish.

"After some days, Anthony Pandian and his friend Shyamraj were hacked to death by an unidentified gang. Taking benefit of the situation, Inspector Selvam implicated me and my close associates, Emanuel, Varadarajan and Paramasivam, in the double murder case and tortured me brutally in the police station," he added.

"I was granted bail on February 2, 2014. When I was admitted at the hospital after that incident I started vomiting blood which was the outcome of 90 days of inhuman torture," he further added.

Present condition of Yesudas

Yesudas, who was arrested in the 2013 double murder case, was acquitted as innocent in 2015. But society did not accept him as innocent. No one extended any financial support to him.

Yesudas, who was a cashier at a private financial institution headquartered in Kerala, lost his job. Even getting a character certificate was of no avail.

He has been out of a job for almost six years now. Due to the brutal thrashing by the police, one of his legs does not function properly. He cannot stand for a long time and do a task. No one is even willing to give him a job.

Yesudas has filed for fiscal relief in the court. To date, he has not received any succour and the case has been deferred because of the corona situation. He is still awaiting justice.