Magistrate says teen tortured in custody, orders him freed

Chennai: The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday night ordered the release of a 17-year-old boy who was allegedly detained illegally by the Secretariat Colony police for two days before he was admitted to the correctional facility at Kellys.
JJB magistrate Lakshmi Ramesh observed that the boy had been tortured in custody and sent a representation to the police commissioner to initiate action against the police personnel responsible.
A deputy commissioner of police has been asked to investigate and submit a report.
On Tuesday, the boy's mother approached the JJB saying her son had been picked up by 10 policemen from their Retteri house on Sunday. Since the woman, a homemaker, and her husband, a daily wage earner, couldn't afford a lawyer, the JJB aasigned them one.
"I was waiting outside the Secretariat Colony police station on Wednesday when I saw policemen put him in an autorickshaw. They took my son to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital," she said.
"They told me he got injured while trying to escape. My son had plaster wrapped around his left knee joint and doctors said the injury was not due to a fall but due to a severe attack," she said.
"My son told me police personnel wrapped a gunny bag with ice cubes in it around his knee and beat him. The wound filled with pus and his condition became critical on Wednesday," she said.
A police officer denied the allegations and said the juvenile had been involved in a series of offences, including robbery and chain snatching.