CHENNAI: With nine policemen found guilty by a trial court in the Sathankulam custodial death case, civic society members called for more focus on doctors at government hospitals who fail to record injuries in custodial torture cases.
"From bail to trial, courts are dependent on these reports too to conduct cases and only in cases of custodial deaths, such discrepancies come to light," advocate RM Arun Swaminathan said.
Civic society members pointed out another custodial death case in which a trial court in Madurai sentenced four police personnel to 11 years rigorous imprisonment in connection with the death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of the SS Colony police station in 2019.
In 2019, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had ordered the CB-CID to investigate the custodial torture and the resulting death of the minor, who was picked up by the SS Colony police for an inquiry into an alleged jewellery theft, kept in illegal custody for three days and subjected to custodial torture.
In its September 2025 judgment, the Madurai trial court also directed the Directorate of Medical Education to take disciplinary action against the doctors at Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital who filed a report without identifying the external injuries on the 17-year-old boy and also against the then Resident Medical Officer at the hospital for handing over the body to the police without conducting a post-mortem.
Subsequently, the Madurai Bench ordered an interim stay on the portion of the trial court judgment that directed CB-CID to conduct further investigation against three other police personnel and also on the direction to initiate disciplinary action against the police personnel and the doctors.