Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nov 14 A goods vehicle driver from Theni, who had gone to a police station to help with an investigation, was found hanging in its restroom in Madurai district and later died, police said on Saturday.
Opposition leaders slammed the state government and the police department over the death of the complainant inside the Chekkanurani police station, accusing the administration of a “severe deterioration in law and order”.
Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and PMK president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss issued separate statements.
The Station House Officer and other personnel on duty were suspended, and the case was handed over to the CB-CID.
Balakrishnan, who worked as a driver with a private delivery firm, went to the Chekkanurani police station on Friday night to help officers examine CCTV footage in connection with a fire case.
On November 3, the goods vehicle he was driving, carrying parcels and cardamom from Thevaram to Madurai, caught fire near the Valandur Tank Bund. The consignment was destroyed. Valandur police registered a case of accidental fire on his complaint.
Police said Balakrishnan asked to use the restroom while waiting in the Inspector’s room. Personnel found him hanging there at around 6 am on Saturday. He was rushed to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, where doctors declared him dead.
The station’s CCTV footage has been preserved, and a judicial inquest will be held alongside the CB-CID probe, officials said.
Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, in a post on X, asked why custodial deaths continued to occur even after the CM inspected police stations. He asked why a complainant was summoned for questioning at night, and what pressure led to his death inside the station’s restroom.
The former deputy CM cited allegations by Balakrishnan’s relatives that his body was hurriedly sent for post-mortem without being shown to them, raising suspicions of custodial torture.
Palaniswami, in a post on X, expressed shock over the death and said the ruling TVK government’s law and order failures could be ranked like a “Top-10 list of cinema movies”.
“It is shameful that the police force under this administration has been so negligent as to allow a person to take their own life inside a police station,” he said.
Anbumani Ramadoss said in a statement that suspicious deaths inside police stations were a matter of concern. He said Balakrishnan, whom he described as a driver for a cardamom trader from Theni, was detained overnight after he came to report a fire accident involving a cardamom-laden lorry.
While the police said he died by suicide after being questioned as a suspect, the family had rejected this explanation, Anbumani said.
Stressing that the police are solely responsible for the lives of everyone inside the station premises, whether a suspect or a complainant, the PMK leader welcomed the CB-CID inquiry and insisted that the truth be brought to light.
(PTI News)
