Custodial death of truck driver: family members refuse to receive body, alleging police torture

Officials holding talks with the family members of driver R. Balakrishnan of Theni, who died in police custody, in Madurai on Sunday, November 15, 2026. | Photo Credit: ASHOK R The family members and relatives of truck driver R. Balakrishnan, who died in police custody at the Chekkanoorani station on Saturday, refused to receive his body even after a postmortem. They demanded the immediate arrest of the police personnel involved in the incident.The deceased’s family alleged that there were injuries on his body due to the third-degree treatment meted out to him under police custody.They had earlier rejected the CB-CID probe ordered by the State government, and had demanded that the custodial death case be transferred to the CBI.When officials tried to hand over a cheque for ₹3 lakh as compensation, the family members refused it, and staged a protest near the Government Rajaji Hospital.They alleged that the police were hand-in-glove with the truck owner and operator of the courier service for whom Balakrishnan worked, and tried to implicate him in an “accidental fire” on the truck that had destroyed cardamom being transported from Thevaram in Theni to Madurai.“Since the value of the destroyed goods was high, they wanted to implicate my husband in the case,” said Sudha, wife of the deceased.Meanwhile, CPI(M) cadre, led by its Madurai rural district secretary K. Rajendran, joined the protest.Local party leader K. Samuelraj said the entire case was “fishy”, and had a lot of procedural lapses leading to the death of the driver in police custody.“Going by the family members, it looks like Balakrishnan was treated by the police as if he had stolen the cardamom parcels. If that were the case, the police should have booked him for theft and proceeded as per law. But after booking a case of accidental fire, why did the police hold inquiries with him for two days, that too all night on Friday,” he asked.If the value of the goods lost was high, the police should have taken immediate action on the day the fire broke out (November 3), the CPI(M) said.“Why didn’t the police file an FIR on the same day? Why didn’t the police seize the truck involved in the case? They have violated all the directions issued by the Supreme Court for custodial interrogation,” Mr. Samuelraj said.‘No record’The CPI(M) alleged that the police had not entered the details of the custodial inquiry of Balakrishnan in the station’s records. He was illegally detained without an FIR, and hence, the erring personnel should be booked for all these procedural lapses leading to his death, it added.Meanwhile, People’s Watch and the Joint Action Against Custodial Torture have appealed to the State government to book and arrest the police personnel involved, including Inspector Muthu, without delay. Published - November 15, 2026 11:32 pm IST