Ayanavaram ACP, 7 Others Get Jail for Torture

J Shanmugha Sundaram

Published: 21st October 2014 06:03 AM

Last Updated: 21st October 2014

VELLORE: Seven serving policemen, including an Assistant Commissioner, and a retired Special Sub-inspector were awarded six-month imprisonment on Monday for illegally keeping a 40-year-old man in custody and assaulting him in Ambur Town Police Station in 2005.

The Additional District Munsif-cum-Judicial Magistrate Court in Ambur, however, suspended the sentence for a period of one month under Section 389(3) of CrPc and let them out on bail.

The case was filed by J Ranganathan of Perumal Koil Street in Ambur, who had gone to the station to enquire about his brother, against then HC Krishnamoorthy, Sub-Inspector Venkatesan, Inspector A Abdullah, and constables Manoharan, Umpathy, Pandian, Rajkumar and Srinivasan.  Manoharan later retired as a Special Sub-inspector while the other seven are serving at various sub-divisions in the State.

Abdullah is the Assistant Commissioner of Ayanavaram sub-division in Greater Chennai.

Pronouncing the judgment, Magistrate R A S Anada Raj awarded six-month imprisonment to all eight accused and slapped a fine of `1,000 on each of them under sections 147 (rioting) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt).

Under Section 341, the judge slapped a fine of `500 on the constables. A fine of `1000 and additional one-month imprisonment on Abdullah under Section 427, said Ranganathan’s advocate Vellore G Srinivasan. The term would be served concurrently. A compensation of `10,000 was to be given by the accused. 

The case was filed under Section 200 of CrPC in September 2005. Ranganathan’s advocate said he would approach the higher court after getting a copy of the verdict as there “no punishment under Section 506 (i) was handed to the policemen”.

Prison officials attached to the Ambur sub-jail and Dr Nagaraj of Ambur Government Hospital were the key witnesses against the police personnel in the case. 

Calling the judgment as a medicine for his humiliation, J Ranganathan (54) said, “I am happy to hear the judgement today.” 

Ranganathan said, “I was brutally attacked by the policemen for questioning their wrongdoing,” adding they had approached him several times and pleaded to withdraw the case. But, he remained firm, hoping for justice.