MADURAI: A few days after police recaptured and remanded the 17 inmates who escaped from the Theni District Jail, a video clip of one of them, Meenakshi Sundaram, is circulating on social media, alleging that the inmates escaped because of torture and poor living conditions in the prison.
His mother, Arumugathammal, told DT Next that the video is a statement he gave to an advocate before he and his brother Tirupathi surrendered to police in Theni district on October 28.
Meenakshi Sundaram also claims the escape was planned by all the inmates, contradicting the police version that a partially disabled inmate, Linga Prasath, proposed it on October 26 while the prisoners were discussing the cancellation of their bail, and that the others acted on the idea spontaneously. Meenakshi Sundaram has also asked that the CCTV footage be verified in this connection.
The 17 inmates escaped from the jail at Thekkampatti in Theni district on the night of October 26, after allegedly assaulting prison personnel. Police say they staged a medical emergency, pretending that one of them was having an epileptic seizure, to lure the staff into their cell. All were recaptured within about 43 hours.
After recapture, the inmates were remanded and are being moved to central prisons, including those in Palayamkottai, Coimbatore and Salem. Meenakshi Sundaram and Thirupathi were lodged in Salem Central Prison.
In the video, Meenakshi Sundaram claims the escape was planned by 21 inmates [police sources say 17 inmates had escaped], contradicting the police version that a partially disabled inmate, Linga Prasath, proposed it on October 26 while the prisoners were discussing the cancellation of their bail, and that the others acted on the idea spontaneously. Meenakshi Sundaram has also asked that the CCTV footage be verified in this connection.
He says the inmates escaped not to harm anyone but to surrender before a judicial magistrate and explain the torture and inhuman living conditions they faced in the prison. He alleges that, after he complained about poor food and conditions to the prison superintendent and a judicial magistrate during a visit, the authorities did not act and prison guards tortured him instead. "I escaped from the prison fearing they might do something to me," he says in the video.
Meanwhile, Arumugathammal has sent a representation on October 31 to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, alleging that police had falsely booked her two sons in theft and ganja cases at Chintamani police station on October 9, a few months after Meenakashi Sundaram had been released from jail. She alleges that, after recapture, police assaulted the 17 inmates and remanded them without medical treatment, and that an advocate who met her sons in Salem jail told her of their injuries.
A senior prison officer said Meenakshi Sundaram had injuries when he was admitted and is being treated in the jail hospital. He added that, under prison rules, only advocates are allowed to meet such inmates for 30 days.
Madurai City Police Commissioner S Rajendran rejected the allegation that the brothers had been falsely booked. He said both are history sheeters, that Meenakshi Sundaram is accused in murder cases, that Tirupathi is a notorious ganja seller, and that they began committing crimes as juveniles. "Many youths were found to have procured ganja from Tirupathi," he said, adding that both are addicted to ganja.