Felled by the protectors

The death of a 17-year-old boy ‘in custody’ at the government-run observation home in Chengalpattu is a grim reminder of the gruesome Sathankulam custodial deaths. His death due to alleged torture also exposed the lacunae in the correctional system and rehabilitation homes for children who come in conflict with the law

For the mother of the 17-year-old boy who died in December last after being allegedly beaten by the authorities in an observation home where he was lodged, the grief is unending. He was her only hope after her husband died four years ago. Five other children — two sons and three daughters, aged between 5 and 14 — are dependent on her earning by working as a watch-woman at a pump house nearby.

Her soon-to-be-adult son could not study further and started supporting his family by working at a toyshop at the Kundrathur bus stand. He used to give the family ₹2,000 a month. He was returning home by train after visiting a friend on December 29. The Railway Protection Force apprehended him on suspicion at 10.30 p.m. The mother was informed by the police the next day.

At the police station, she was led to a room. Recalling her son’s last words to her, she said, “He pleaded with me to take him away as soon as possible. He cried that he would listen to me and be obedient. I told him that I would take him out (on bail) after Pongal; we spoke for one and a half hours. At that point, there were no injuries on his body. Again, while being taken to the observation home at Chengalpattu, he told me to take him out (on bail) as quickly as possible.”

Police sources said the boy was secured by the Railway Protection Force, Tambaram, as he was allegedly involved in a theft. He was taken to the District Juvenile Justice Board and then kept at the observation home, housed on the same campus as the special home, at Chengalpattu on the night of December 30.

“The next evening, I got a call from a person who is a warden of the observation home, informing me that my son had a seizure after having ‘poori’ and buttermilk. The caller said they were taking him in a two-wheeler to the Government General Hospital, Chengalpattu, and asked me to rush there. Before I reached the nearby bus stand from my house in 10 minutes, I got another call informing me that my son was admitted to the emergency ward. Again, after 10 minutes later, the caller informed me that my son had died,” she said.

She alleged that she was not allowed to enter the hospital since it was late at night. When she reached the observation home, a staff member took her on a bike telling her that she could visit her son the next day. She was then forcibly made to stay at the home of a woman staff member’s relative, the mother claimed. “I was taken by the staff member to see the body of my son in the afternoon of January 1. I was shocked to see the body bearing injuries; he was beaten on the forehead and the cheek, there were blade cuts on the nose and the lower lip, and other injuries on the chest. It seemed that my son was brutally beaten inside the home,” she said.

She said she was forcibly taken by the staff of the observation home to the place where she was staying earlier and kept there against her will. She also claimed that she was threatened to sign on blank papers, which she refused. She managed to slip away from the hospital and from the eyes of the staff and took an autorickshaw to the Collector’s office to call for an investigation into “foul play” in her son’s death.