MADURAI: Coordinator of AIADMK Cadres Right Retrieval Organisation, O Panneerselvam, became the latest voice to condemn the custodial death of temple security guard B Ajith Kumar.

Panneerselvam visited the victim's grief-stricken family in Madapuram to console them and offered them a solatium of Rs 2 lakh, according to sources. Ajith Kumar, a guard at Bathirakali Amman temple in Sivaganga's Tiruppuvanam, was arrested based on a jewellery theft complaint by a professor. Commenting on the issue, Panneerselvam said the police had behaved atrociously and violated the law.

After consoling Ajith Kumar's family on Saturday, Panneerselvam told reporters that it was pathetic that the postmortem examination found multiple injuries on the victim's body. "It was inhuman and unfair that the police took the law into their own hands. No one can hide the truth now as the postmortem results have come to light. The hope rests on the judiciary now. The guilty should be punished without mercy."

Commenting on police excesses, the former CM said that if the situation continues, it would bring the downfall of the DMK government. He noted that, unlike when J Jayalalitha was at the helm during the AIADMK regime, the police force was not under the government's control now.

"Law and order, which ensures the protection of life and is an important responsibility of the government, is breaking down in the state," he said.