TN custody death: EPS demands CBI inquiry; TVK chief Vijay presses for HC-supervised SIT probe

Following the death of a 27-year-old youth under illegal custody of the police in Sivaganga district, the DMK government of MK Stalin has been under fire from the opposition, with the principal opposition AIADMK demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident while the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor Vijay pressing for a High Court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The victim, Ajith Kumar, a security guard at the Bhadra Kali Amman temple at Madapuram, had been picked up by the police in connection with a jewel theft case filed by a devotee visiting the shrine, and had died allegedly due to severe thrashing by a Special Police Team on Sunday. While the six cops, attached to Thirupuvanam police station, involved in thrashing the victim to death were suspended and arrested, the state government had transferred the investigation to the CB-CID police.

Advertisement

This being the 25^th such custodial death after the DMK assumed power in 2021, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI as the state police has lost the confidence of the people.

“It is shocking that the post-mortem report on the body of the victim revealed 18 wounds from head to toe. Further, the blows to the neck have resulted in his death. This had happened due to the highhandedness of the police, under the watch of the Stalin government. The 25 custodial deaths are a flagrant violation of human rights and the NHRC should take this up suo motu,” he wrote in a post of ‘X’.

A former Chief Minister, EPS, also alleged that the police had initially attempted to cover up the incident, and the police under the Stalin government are lying as they had done in the May 2022 lock-up death of Vignesh in Chennai. “Even the FIR in Ajit Kumar’s death has stated that it was due to fits. Where is the Chief Minister hiding? Rather than answering the public, he is holding review meetings on law and order, and shifting the investigation to CB-CID is not enough, as they prove to be mere drama,” he said.

Coming down heavily on the DMK government, actor-politician Vijay, pressing for a High Court-monitored probe, said the death of Ajit Kumar under illegal police custody had raised several questions. 

“This incident exposes how, under the watch of Chief Minister Stalin, holding the Home Department, the police had become a lawless force without an iota of ethics. Initially, the Government had tried to save the police personnel involved in the heinous crime. Only after political parties took up the issue and after the intervention of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, the police started to act. The Chief Minister should release a White Paper on the 24 lock-up deaths in the last four years,” according to a statement he shared on ‘X’. 

Further, he asked Stalin to extend an assurance that such an incident would not take place. Otherwise, people would hand out a historic defeat to the DMK in the 2026 assembly election, he warned.