Custodial Torture: ‘State Killing Its Own Citizens?’ Asks Madras High Court

Torture by Police Signals State’s Illegitimate Power Over Citizens

July 2, 2025

Five police personnel in Tamil Nadu have been arrested for allegedly torturing a 29-year-old temple security guard to death in custody. He was detained without an FIR, subjected to prolonged assault and died without being charged or produced before a magistrate. The police, it seems, did not just act outside the law, they acted without regard for the existence of law altogether.

The victim, Ajith Kumar, was employed as a temporary security guard at a temple in Thirupuvanam, a town in Sivaganga district. A woman accused him of stealing her jewellery after he parked her car on her request, according to NDTV, which added that she was reported to be close to a bureaucrat. Ajith was taken into custody based on her complaint, but the police made no record of his detention.

Inside custody, he was beaten so severely that, according to the Madras High Court, there was no part of his body left untouched. The injuries were consistent with a focused and sustained assault. The judges remarked that even murderers do not inflict such levels of violence.

“Even a murderer will give 5-6 blows, and once he feels that there’s no life, he’ll leave it. This is all because of power. That’s why they’re (police) doing all this. He’s not even an accused. There’s no FIR. Even without registering an FIR, under the guise of a preliminary enquiry, they’ve caused all this injury. Even if an FIR was registered, such injuries cannot be inflicted. It’s shocking the conscience of the people of the entire state,” the Court said in oral comments, according to LiveLaw.

After Ajith’s death, his body was reportedly moved from Thirupuvanam to Madurai, evidence had been destroyed and investigators didn’t collect critical material. No explanation was given for who authorised the detention, or under what provision.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has reportedly ordered that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and assured the family of full support. He called the assault unpardonable and said the force must operate in a manner that respects human rights. The court directed the state to take action against not just the constables, but also senior officers, and asked for a detailed report on all decisions made in the chain of command.

The conduct of the police cannot be viewed as a mere breakdown of procedure or a failed attempt to follow the law. The law was never consulted. The police picked up an unarmed man, held him in undisclosed custody, and tortured him until death. It shows that the erring officers and others involved were confident they could evade accountability. The police acted as if the right to use violence came from their uniform, not from the law.

In political theory, the idea of the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence holds that only the state can use force, and only when it is authorised and constrained by law. That power must follow clear rules – who can be restrained, how and when. When police assault someone who has not even been accused of a crime, with no record, no charges and no oversight, the violence is worse than violence by a private citizen, because it comes from those entrusted to uphold the law. It is a betrayal of that trust. When police act like this, they do not enforce the law; they destroy its meaning.

The police believed they had the right to punish the victim on the basis of a verbal complaint – a worldview in which the policeman decides guilt, enacts punishment and erases the trail.

Generally speaking, the involvement of politicians in enabling police lawlessness cannot be ignored.

Across India, police forces are frequently controlled not by institutional norms but by political agendas. Officers are transferred, promoted or punished not on the basis of performance or integrity, but on their usefulness to the ruling party. This political grip over the police hierarchy allows ruling parties to bend law enforcement to their will, creating a culture where violence becomes a tool of political control rather than an instrument of justice.

There is clear evidence that in several states, including Tamil Nadu, the police have been used to execute politically motivated tasks. In Tamil Nadu’s 2020 Sathankulam case, two men were tortured to death for allegedly violating lockdown norms. Though the CBI later filed charges, the pace of justice was slowed by early attempts at concealment and complicity at the local level. Political connections were widely suspected to have influenced the initial silence.

Elsewhere, the link between political power and police violence has been more overt. In Odisha, a senior officer was recently caught on camera ordering his team to “break the legs” of Congress party protestors, as reported by The Times of India. The officer’s language clearly reflected political – not professional – instruction.

In Tamil Nadu again, TVK leader Vijay recently accused police of kicking and beating his party’s women members during a protest, calling the police an extension of the ruling party’s force, according to another report by The Times of India. This alignment of police loyalty with political interest removes all checks on violent behaviour and reduces accountability to a matter of partisan concern.

The deeper problem lies in how the state defines power and whom it protects. When the police are used as agents of illegal political instruction, violence becomes embedded in governance. Officers learn that violence will be rewarded, not punished, as long as it serves political ends. The result is not random brutality but a functioning system of informal repression. The state, in such a condition, stops protecting citizens and begins controlling them through fear.

Any attempt to address custodial deaths or torture must begin by breaking this political control over policing. Without that, every inquiry or arrest remains cosmetic.

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