The mother of Roy D’Souza has testified in court that she has no knowledge of the alleged assault on her son by six police personnel in Virajpet following which he died in June 2021.
Six police officials of the Virajpet Town police station are on trial for illegally confining and assaulting 50-year-old Roy with weapons on the intervening night of June 9 and 10 in 2021. His family took him to a hospital on June 10 and he died on June 12.
Roy’s is one of the six cases of death after alleged custodial torture between January 2020 and February 2025 in which the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed chargesheets against the police for offences ranging from assault to causing death by negligence. During that period, the CID investigated 35 cases with varying outcomes.
In Roy’s case, the chargesheet filed on July 31, 2023, accused police officers Thanukumar HG, Lokesh NS, Sunil MU, Sathish NS, Nehru Arun Kumar KC, and Sangamesha of assault under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code.
Three of the six accused list their permanent addresses in Kodagu district, while one hails from Vijayapura district. The other two officers’ permanent addresses are not mentioned in the chargesheet.
On July 9, the Principal Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class in Virajpet accepted the charges framed by the CID and the trial began with Roy’s mother Matilda D’Souza testifying before the court on August 31.
The chargesheet only accuses the police of assault, relying on the medical opinion to exonerate them of allegations of causing death. The medical opinion said that Roy died of a heart attack caused by heart disease.
But two forensic doctors who examined the post mortem report at TNM’s request said that the findings of the post mortem do not add up to that conclusion. Both doctors said that the findings recorded in the post mortem and histopathology reports gave no indication of heart disease and that the role of the injuries in causing the heart attack was not ruled out.
Roy had been severely assaulted. The post mortem found 24 external injuries on Roy’s body, including six abrasions (scratches), 17 contusions (bruises), and one fingernail torn off. At least two of the bruises on Roy’s back were what forensic doctors call “tram track” injuries—clear, parallel lines—which are typical of police torture.
Read: A Kodagu man left police custody with 24 injuries. Did he really die of a heart attack?
Court testimony
During her testimony before the court on August 31, Matilda denied having any knowledge about the assault on her son Roy, allegedly by the six police officers named in the chargesheet.
“Around 3–4 years ago, when my son was unwell I took him to Ashwini Hospital in Madikeri and I signed a paper. I don’t remember for what and in which place I signed (the FIR, spot mahazar, and seizure mahazar),” Matilda said.
The spot mahazar (inventory) was drawn on June 16, 2021, at the Virajpet Rural police station to identify the location where Roy was found lying injured after the assault. The seizure mahazar (inventory) was drawn on July 2, 2021, when the police collected from Matilda the clothes Roy had worn on the day of the assault.
“Because my son had fits, I don’t know what he did and where. The police did not do any mahazar in my presence and I never gave the police any objects. I never gave the police any statement,” Matilda said, at which point the prosecution declared her hostile and went on to cross-examine her.
During the cross-examination, Matilda went on to deny all the allegations that she had made in the FIR and subsequently.
Matilda had previously told the police that on June 9, Roy left the house after 11 pm. He had not taken his medicines, was very angry, and was shouting.
During cross-examination, Matilda admitted that a relative had called her saying they had to fetch Roy as he was creating a ruckus on the main road with unknown people who had assaulted him with weapons.
She said that it was true that Roy was injured and bleeding when they brought him home from near the Virajpet private bus stand on June 10, 2021 around 2 am, and that she and her relatives had taken Roy to a hospital when he did not wake up the next morning.
However, she denied that she met the Virajpet Town police station head constable at the hospital between 6.15 pm and 7.15 pm, where she lodged a complaint with him, which led to the FIR.
She also denied in court what she had previously told the magistrate during the inquest: that early on the morning of June 10, a police vehicle came near her house and told her relatives that Roy was at the police station, and that she and her relatives then picked Roy up from the police station.
“It is not true that on that day, Roy told me that the police beat him to a pulp,” she told the court.
She then denied that Roy’s body was swollen and his fingers bleeding when they changed his clothes after taking him home that night.
“It is not true that the police called me that day around 9 am and asked about Roy, saying that I will be in trouble if I say that the police assaulted Roy,” she told the court.
She also denied that she received a call that day saying she should take Roy to a good hospital in Mangaluru and that they would take care of the expenses. It is unclear from her deposition, which is accessible online, whom she received a call from.
She then denied that the alleged assault by the police had anything to do with Roy’s death. “It is not true to say that Roy died on June 12, 2021, of a heart attack because the accused together assaulted Roy with lathis and their hands, and kicked him with their legs. It is not true that I am colluding with the accused in order to help them by giving a false statement despite having full information about the case,” she told the court.
Intimidation?
Matilda’s turning hostile to the prosecution raises the possibility that she was intimidated, especially since such attempts were recorded by the local newspapers in Kodagu district in the days after Roy’s death.
On June 14, 2021, four women turned up at Matilda’s house in Virajpet on the pretext of offering their condolences, Kannada daily Shakti reported. Matilda’s other son Robin later told the media that he suspected that they were the wives of four of the accused cops. Shakti also published pictures along with this news report.
Shakti also reported that the next day, on June 15, two local police officers in uniform turned up at Matilda’s house, pretending to be the CID officers investigating the case. They allegedly asked Matilda to hand over the clothes Roy was wearing and sign a blank sheet of paper. Robin told Shakti that Matilda refused to do either.