Chennai: A teenager, who had lost his hearing due to custodial violence in a case of mistaken identity, was killed when cops allegedly hurled stones at him in the hope of stalling his attempt to flee and consequently he fell in the Cooum river. He was being chased along Langs Garden road when he met his end on Thursday morning. The deceased was identified as Mukesh (18), resident of Kannagi Nagar.
The incident came to light after his kin scoured along the riverbank on Friday morning and identified the body as that of Mukesh. The body was subsequently moved to the Government Royapettah Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
The teen had come to Chinthadripet to take part in a funeral rite of a friend in Pumping Station road on October 12 and went missing after a clash broke out during the mourning period around 5 am on Thursday.
The boys who had entered Cooum along with Mukesh on Thursday informed his mother Sumathi that they had managed to escape but the fate of Mukesh was uncertain. Sumathi came knocking on the doors of Egmore Police and learnt that her son was not there.
Her kin went to the Cooum looking for her son and found the dead boy afloat in the muck. Subsequently, she lodged a complaint with Egmore Police stating that her son died under suspicious circumstance after he was chased and stoned by the police. “When they took him away in March last, my son lost his hearing after being brutally beaten up by the cops. He stopped going to school after that. Now they stoned him to death. I saw his eyes protruding from his socket when he was fished out of Cooum,” said Sumathi.
People’s Watch Executive director, Henri Tiphagne, condemned the City Police for their active role in the incident and demanded a magisterial probe besides the prosecution of erring police officials. A case of unnatural death had been registered and forwarded to a metropolitan magistrate. “The magistrate will pass orders for an RDO cadre official to probe the incident since the complaint is against the police. The post-mortem would take place on Saturday,” said advocate N. Lalitha. Meanwhile, the cops refuted the allegation made by the family.
