The custodial death of 27-year-old B. Ajith Kumar in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu bears chilling similarities to what police officer Derek Chauvin and his three colleagues from the Minneapolis (Minnesota) police department did to George Floyd in 2020. Floyd died of suffocation when the officer forcefully kneeled on his neck, exerting extreme pressure.
Ajith Kumar of Madappuram near Thiruppuvanam in the Sivagangai district was subjected to the same kind of cruelty by the personnel of the special crime squad attached to the Manamadurai police sub-division. The post-mortem report submitted to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and available with Frontline reveals the third-degree torture that Ajith Kumar was put through. He had died of multiple external and internal injuries, especially in the neck, chest, skull and abdomen, where multiple haemorrhages were noted.
His body bore 44 “external injuries”, of which 18 were major ones. The internal examination showed sub-scalp contusion and subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage on both sides of the parietal and left temporal region. Multiple petechial haemorrhages were noticed on the bi-parietal lobes of the brain. Haemorrhage was also noted over the posterior wall of the left ventricle and pulmonary trunk. There were injuries to the neck, including its vocal cords, pharynx and larynx, causing fatal suffocation and catastrophic internal bleeding.
No wonder the court expressed its anguish thus: “Even an ordinary murderer would not have caused this much injury to a person.” Eyewitnesses, including Vineeth Kumar, brother of the deceased, who vividly recalled that fateful evening of June 28 when Ajit died of his injuries, told the court how he was tortured. One of the witnesses, Saktheeshwaran, a temple employee who took a video of the thrashing and Ajith’s wails of pain without the knowledge of the police, has sought protection since he fears for his life.