CHENNAI : The mortuary at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital was fortified with men in khaki and people weeping on Saturday morning, after a 22-year-old burglary suspect died in police custody.

Jayakumar who was clubfooted, was taken to the Esplanade police station three days ago and died on Saturday morning.

While the Esplanade crime wing police inspector Gunasekaran was transferred to vacancy reserve on Saturday morning, later in the evening, he was placed under suspension as part of departmental action.
“It was just two months ago we celebrated Jayakumar’s birthday,” recollected Prakash, Jayakumar’s childhood friend who was waiting at the mortuary on Saturday.

Police claimed that he suffered a ‘seizure’ during interrogation and they tried to save him by rushing him to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital at around 1 am, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Since it is ‘death under suspicious circumstances’, police have registered a case under the Section 176 (custodial death - Inquiry by Magistrate into cause of death). The jurisdictional magistrate visited the spot and conducted the inquiry.

Police said the autopsy at the Rajiv Gandhi GH mortuary was videographed and the report will be handed over after getting the forensic report.On December 18, Esplanade police received a complaint of a house burglary from Sabeer Fatnawala, 52, at Mannadi, where around 60 sovereigns of gold were stolen.

On Wednesday morning, police detained K Ajith Kumar (19) from Parrys, and later detained, K Vignesh Kumar (23), and M Jayakumar (22), based on Ajith Kumar’s confession. Jayakumar and Vignesh Kumar worked at two different hardware stores at Mannadi. 

“The police informed the hardware shop owner, who in turn, informed Jayakumar’s father, Manivannan. Jayakumar’s uncle, who is a lawyer, visited the police station on Thursday.  As no stolen gold was recovered from Vignesh Kumar’s house, they beat him in front of his parents and on the road too, in the full view of the public,” said Ravi Shankar, another friend of Jayakumar.

“If found guilty, necessary legal action against other police personnel responsible for the custodial death will be taken,” said a senior police officer.

The police have arrested Vignesh Kumar and Ajith Kumar, and remanded them under judicial custody.