Nagercoil custodial death: Three prison staff arrested, family protests demanding second autopsy

Following the custodial death of disabled shopkeeper S. Sabari Varman at Nagercoil sub-jail, police arrested three prison staff members. The victim's family is staging protests demanding a second autopsy, sparking fierce political backlash over jail administration lapses

Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu): Relatives of S Sabari Varman, a remand prisoner who died in the sub-jail here, staged an overnight protest demanding a second autopsy and an independent probe, while the opposition parties flayed the Tamil Nadu government over the handling of the issue.

A day after Sabari Varman, 35, a disabled shopkeeper from Ethankadu in Nagercoil, allegedly died in judicial custody on July 13, the police arrested three prison staff, including a chief warden and placed them under suspension after a postmortem report indicated 19 injuries on the victim’s body, including his elbows, forearms, knees and legs.

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A case has been registered against eight co-inmates at the prison in connection with the disabled shopkeeper’s death, a senior police official said and added that the prison staff were arrested based on CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts.

The co-inmates had assaulted Sabari Varman in his cell at around 12 midnight on July 13 for making loud noise, and thereafter the prison staff intervened and allegedly beat up the victim, the official said.

The family members who have refused to accept the body have staged an overnight protest in front of the Government Medical College Hospital at Asaripallam here, demanding a second autopsy and an independent probe.

The incident triggered a backlash from the opposition parties, with DMK MP Kanimozhi faulting the police and government over the handling of the issue. She visited the affected families and consoled them on Wednesday night.

Taking strong exception to alleged “police brutality in the Nagercoil sub-jail, Kanimozhi said, “Even after three days of this custodial death, there has been no explanation or statement from Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.”

“No minister has visited the victim’s family in person. This government has not even come forward to provide relief to the affected family. Overall, as always, the TVK government is just watching the issue without taking responsibility,” she later said in a post on ‘X’.

Terming it as “a horrific incident”, BJP State Chief Nainar Nagenthran claimed that the custodial deaths that occurred during the DMK regime appeared to continue. Speaking to reporters, he said the chief minister should take immediate steps to restore law and order in the state.

BJP chief spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy, in a post on X, flayed the prison administration for this death.

“It shows serious lapses and a lacklustre attitude within the prison administration, including failure to prevent violence inside the cell, alleged involvement of prison staff, delayed medical intervention, and inadequate protection for a differently-abled inmate”.

He argued that similar lapses have been reported in Tamil Nadu prisons before, where judicial custody deaths have exposed negligence by jail staff in protecting inmates and providing timely care.

“This case once again highlights the Prison Department’s recurring failure rather than police lock-up brutality,” he said.

“The Prison Department must be held accountable for these repeated lapses instead of allowing the narrative to shift blame entirely onto police. Justice demands a clear distinction between police custody deaths and prison deaths so that genuine reforms can be made in the correctional system,” Thirupathy said on ‘X’.

National statistics also showed that deaths in judicial custody far outnumber those in police lock-ups, often due to systemic failures like overcrowding, poor supervision, and lack of accountability in prisons, he claimed.

CPI(M) legislator R Chellaswamy said the victim’s relatives told him that they were not satisfied with the postmortem report and sought a second autopsy.

PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss demanded a probe by the CBI.

According to police, Varman was arrested by the Thenthamaraikulam police allegedly for selling banned gutka on July 9. About 200 grams of banned gutka were confiscated from Sabari Varman’s shop, police said.