A 44-year-old man was found dead in a police station in Tiruchirappalli while in custody for an alleged phone snatching case. A Muruganantham, from Oriyur of Ariyalur district, was at the Samayapuram Mariamman temple in the early hours of Monday, September 26, when he allegedly tried to snatch a phone from a devotee. He was caught by the public and handed over to the police by the temple security staff.
The police conducted an inquiry and asked him to remain in the station. Muruganantham reportedly went to the bathroom and did not return for a long while. He was later found dead inside the bathroom. His body was sent to the Tiruchirappalli Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital for a postmortem. Samayapuram police registered a case under section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) as it was a custodial death.
As per reports, Tiruchirappalli Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar visited the Samayapuram police station and conducted preliminary inquiries. He checked the body and examined the CCTV footage and said that prima facie, it appeared to be a case of suicide.
A Saravana Sundar, Deputy Inspector General of police (DIG), Tiruchirappalli range, told reporters on Monday that the case will be transferred to the Crime Branch - Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID). He also said that the materials, documents and CCTV footage at the temple and the police station will be handed over to the CB-CID for investigation. Deputy Superintendent of police (DySP) Lalgudi R Seetharaman has been appointed as the investigating officer.
Muruganantham is the accused in the murder of his mother. This case is pending in the Ariyalur district court.
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The Samayapuram police station had witnessed a previous incident of custodial death in December 2019. Fifty-five-year-old R Murugan, a resident of Tiruchirappalli, was picked up for inquiry by a special police team in a jewellery theft in a bus near Samayapuram. Murugan had reportedly confessed that he had handed over the stolen jewellery to a person in Perambalur. He is said to have suffered chest pain while being taken to Perambalur and was taken to a private hospital where he was declared brought dead. The trial in this case is still pending.