The 100-day vigil: How custodial death case ended in state-ordered cremation

His parents, sister and uncle were permitted to accompany the remains and pay their final respects. But the cremation itself was conducted by the authorities, acting on an order issued a day earlier by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

Outside the hospital, relatives and supporters protested the government’s decision, asking for more time to appeal. Fourteen people were taken into custody as they attempted to prevent officials from removing the body. Family members alleged they had been threatened with forcible detention.

The confrontation marked the final, painful stage of a case that began with an arrest on March 6 and developed into one of the most disturbing allegations of custodial torture in Tamil Nadu in recent years.

Family members mourn during the last rites of Akash Delison, in Madurai on Wednesday. (ANI)

The allegations

Delison, a resident of Krishnarajapuram in Manamadurai and a member of the Scheduled Caste Pallar community, was detained along with another man in connection with an attempted murder case. The two were accused of attacking P Jayakumar and R Azhagar with sharp weapons.

The police said Delison sustained a serious leg injury after jumping from a bridge while attempting to escape. His family said the explanation concealed a brutal interrogation.

Delison died on March 8 at Government Rajaji Hospital, after being transferred through government hospitals in Manamadurai and Sivaganga. By then, he had given a statement to a judicial magistrate describing what he said had happened in police custody. According to the declaration, officers blindfolded him, positioned stones beneath his ankle and knee, covered his leg with a wet sack and struck it forcefully with an iron rod.

“Immediately upon being hit, the bone broke and protruded out, and there was bleeding,” he said in the statement.

The alleged use of a wet sack was particularly chilling to lawyers and rights advocates. The method — placing soaked cloth over a limb before striking it — has long been described in allegations of police torture in Tamil Nadu, with activists claiming that it is used to reduce obvious external marks even as blows cause fractures, internal bleeding and extensive damage to muscles, nerves and blood vessels.

Delison’s father, A Rajeshkannan, alleged that officers had deliberately crushed his son’s leg between stones, causing catastrophic blood loss. The family refused to receive the body after the post-mortem examination, demanding the arrest of all 16 police personnel they believed were connected to the episode.

Six officers were eventually suspended: Inspector Dileepan of the Thiruppuvanam police station, Manamadurai Sub-Inspector Gugan, head constables Deivendran and Sarathkumar, and constables Kalishwaran and Manoharan. The investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department, or CB-CID.

The aftermath

But the suspensions did not satisfy the family. Its refusal to bury or cremate Delison transformed the hospital mortuary into a prolonged site of protest. Forensic findings added to the questions surrounding the police account. The post-mortem, conducted in the presence of a judicial magistrate, reportedly documented more than two dozen injuries, including fractures of the tibia and fibula, extensive muscle and nerve damage, wounds on the elbows and knees, and multiple abrasions.

A large internal contusion, measuring roughly 45 centimetres by 12 centimetres, was recorded around the injured leg. Forensic experts also allegedly identified apparent discrepancies between the initial medical records and the final autopsy, including differences concerning the possible role of a fat embolism in Delison’s death.

The pattern and severity of the injuries prompted questions over whether they could reasonably have resulted from a fall from a bridge. Concerns were also raised over whether all National Human Rights Commission protocols governing custodial deaths had been followed.

The state continued to deny that Delison had been tortured. Its lawyers told the high court that he had never been taken to the Manamadurai police station and that his injuries occurred during his attempt to escape.

The government said the criminal case had nevertheless been altered to include murder and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The family was provided Rs 6 lakh in compensation under the law.

On Tuesday, Justice L Victoria Gowri ruled that the body could not remain indefinitely in the mortuary. The post-mortem and other medico-legal procedures had been completed, samples preserved and the investigation transferred to an independent agency, she noted.

A decent burial or cremation, the judge said, was an extension of human dignity, and that dignity could itself be defeated by the indefinite preservation of mortal remains. She directed officials to document the body through photographs and video, follow the family’s religious customs as far as they could be ascertained and ensure that the cremation did not prejudice the CB-CID investigation.

The case has carried political consequences beyond Manamadurai. Custodial deaths and allegations of police excess became one of the recurring stains on the former DMK government, damaging its claims of socially just and humane governance. They were among the issues that opposition parties used to portray the administration as unaccountable before its electoral defeat. For Delison’s family, however, the political reckoning remains secondary to an unanswered demand.