Coimbatore Torture Survivor

Context of Torture

On September 12, 2023, an FIR [ First Information Report] 277 of 2023 was registered against the victim and the other accused at Kattur Police Station in connection with the case. On September 16, 2023, around 05.30 PM, a police official of Saravanampatty police station arrested R. Jayakumar (Victim) at Thaneer Panthal near Peelamedu in Coimbatore. Police officials of Saravanampatty and Kattur police stations tortured the victim from September 16 to September 20, 2023

Type of Torture

The police had spread the two legs of the victim apart and standing on his legs (thigh), beat him on his legs and feet with rubber pipes and lathis. The police had also beaten him with a wooden log in the hip region and kicked him with shoes on his stomach. They had not even allowed him to urinate and continuously tortured him. The police only gave him half a litre of water per day, and for an entire day, the victim was blindfolded, and his mouth was tied with a cloth. Due to the above detailed constant torture, he had been subjected to, he had swelling all over his body and severe pain. The police used a painkiller spray and severely beat him on his head

Perpetrators

Manikantan (Police Head Constable), Pazhaniammal (Police Inspector), Kuralarasan (Police Inspector), Pugazhendi (Police Head Constable), Harshad, Selvamani, Veeramani, Harish, Dhanaphal (Special Team Police personnel),  Murugesan (Driver), Karthik (Inspector), Mohan and Rajendran (Police Inspector). 

Physical and Psychological Effects

The Victim had blood clots on his thighs, and his male reproductive organ was swollen as a result of the torture. He had trouble urinating, and when he urinated, his urine contained blood. Due to this, he was shifted from Tirupur Prison to the Tirupur Government Hospital and later to the Intensive care unit at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital; the doctors confirmed that both kidneys failed, and the victim had to undergo 13 sessions of dialysis. The same was suddenly stopped when the writ petition, he had filed through his mother before the Madras High Court was summarily dismissed, where she had only asked for specialized medical treatment for her son in a multi-specialty hospital run by the government in Chennai. 

• Description of assistance to be provided
• We provided medical assistance
• legal intervention before Judicial Magistrate Coimbatore[i],
• legal representations to state-level oversight committees,
• right to information applications to seek victims' medical records, and supported the filing of a writ petition before the Madras High Court[ii] and later the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi [iii].