Tamil Nadu man ends life, kin allege custodial torture

CHENNAI: The family of a 22-year-old Kayakumari man, who died by suicide on Saturday, has alleged that he resorted to the extreme step after being tortured at a police station where he went to sign as part of his conditional bail. District police denied the charges and reiterated that S Ajith had attempted suicide.
Kanyakumari: The family of a 22-year-old man, who poisoned himself to death on Saturday, has alleged that he took the extreme step after being tortured at the Kulasekaram police station where he went on June 23.However, Kanyakumari district police have denied the allegations and reiterated that the man consumed poison in a possible suicide attempt.
Police said the deceased S Ajith was admitted to the Kanyakumari government medical college hospital on June 23 after consuming poison and he died on Saturday. His father Sasikumar said Ajith left for the Kulasekaram police station around 9 am to sign there as part of his conditional bail and that he was tortured in custody moments before dying. Based on the father's complaint, a case under section 174 CrPC was registered and police are investigating. A letter for RDO inquiry was issued and postmortem examination was videographed.
DIG Tirunelveli range Pravesh Kumar said in a statement on Sunday that there was no evidence of custodial torture and CCTV camera footage corroborated what exactly happened. "Ajith had come to Kulasekaram police station on June 23 around 2 pm claiming that his mobile phone was there, and asked for it to be returned. As the police said they didn't have his phone in their possession, he left. Sometime later he came back to the station saying he consumed poison, and also took something out of a plastic bag and ate it," he said.
The statement said cops took him to the Kulasekaram government hospital before he was referred to Kanyakumari MCH where he died without responding to treatment on Saturday morning by 11:45 am.