E-Paper
Tamil Nadu: Custodial torture victim appears before CID
A minor victim of custodial torture on Friday appeared before the CB-CID in Tirunelveli accompanied by his parents.
A minor victim accompanied by his parents appeared before the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) in Tirunelveli on Friday in connection with the case of suspended IPS officer Balveer Singh who has been accused of custodial torture.
Several men have accused assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Singh of torturing them in custody across four police stations in his jurisdiction in Tirunelveli district’s Ambasamudram. They have alleged that Singh broke and pulled out their teeth. Two men have said he crushed their genitals. Two boys aged 16 and 17 have also complained that he thrashed them. Rajeshwari, the mother of the 17-year-old minor boy and Arun Kumar, 22 had in a press conference in Chennai on April 5 revealed the alleged torture against her sons. She said that police told her that they were bleeding because they fell down and sent her to bring back change of clothes for both her sons and their two friends.
Based on this, the CB-CID on May 1 booked Singh under section 75 ( if any person having control of child, assaults, abandons, abuses or willfully neglects the child) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and three sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.
The Tamil Nadu police registered an FIR against Singh under four sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on April 17. Human rights activists and the ruling DMK’s ally CPM have been demanding an FIR against Singh since the allegations came to light in March and have criticised the government and the police for the delay.
The case has gone through several rounds of enquiries. Before transferring the case to the CB-CID on April 19, the Tamil Nadu government appointed senior IAS officer P Amudha on April 7 to investigate the case against Singh following a preliminary investigation report submitted by the Cheranmahadevi sub-collector and sub-divisional magistrate Mohamed Shabbir Alam on April 3 recommending a high-ranking officer to lead the inquiry.
The victims had earlier also complained that they were being pressured by the police to withdraw and state that they broke their teeth by falling down. This led to action against nine police officers, including shifting of the Tirunelveli superintendent of police (SP) P Saravanan to a compulsory wait.
The allegations of custodial torture came to light on March 26 when a few men showed their missing teeth in videos and photos and accused Singh of pulling out their teeth and beating them in custody on March 10. Singh, a 2020 IPS batch officer, was first put on vacancy reserved and later suspended on March 29 on the orders of chief minister MK Stalin.
