Madurai: Man, 20, found hanging, kin allege police torture

MADURAI: A 20-year-old man from Anaikaraipatti village near Peraiyur was found hanging from a tree on Thursday morning. His family members have alleged that he was beaten to death at the police station and hanged to make it look like a suicide. They carried out a protest preventing the police from bringing down the body.District superintendent of police Sujit Kumar said the deceased K Ramesh’s elder brother Idhayakani had eloped with a 17-year-old girl, a relative, on August 23. Based on a complaint from her father, a case was registered with the Saptur police station on August 28. Since then, the police have been summoning Idhayakani’s younger brothers Santhosh and Ramesh as well as mother Pandiammal, but they did not turn up. Meanwhile, a police team consisting of sub-inspector Jayakannan and two constables went to Idhayakani’s house on Wednesday evening, where Pandiammal and Ramesh were present. The SP said they asked them to make themselves available at 10 am on Thursday for an inquiry. On the way back, the police team saw Santhosh. The team took his bike to the station asking him to take it back after appearing for the inquiry. “We came to know that Ramesh was found hanging from a tree in the nearby hillock the next morning,” he said.Family members claimed that Ramesh was taken to the police station at 7 pm along with his bike. While he did not return home the whole night, he was found dead in the morning. They claimed that Ramesh died in police custody. However, Sujit Kumar said they have got a CCTV footage which shows the police team returning only with the bike. Ramesh was nowhere to be seen in the video, he said.The protesting family members demanded Rs 25 lakh compensation, registration of murder case against the SI and constables and action against them under SC/ST act. Since they did not allow the police to bring down the body, Sujit Kumar negotiated with the family members and villagers. Later, a case was registered under IPC section 174 (3)- suspicious death. Autopsy was conducted at the Usilampatti Government Hospital on Thursday afternoon. A revenue divisional officer also conducted an inquiry. A police officer said SI Jayakannan and constables were named in the first information report based on the complaint from Santhosh. However, they were not named as accused.