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Nagercoil: A month ago, on June 17, Tamil Nadu witnessed the cremation of 26-year-old Akash Delison, who succumbed to custodial torture by the Manamadurai police. The state proceeded with the cremation despite the family’s refusal to receive his body for over 100 days, demanding accountability for his death.

Exactly a month later, Sabari Varman’s family found itself in the same horror. Sabari, 35, from Ethankadu lost his life in judicial custody with grave injuries. For over four days after his death, his family too protested without receiving his body, urging justice be served before they performed his final rites.

They ultimately cremated him on Friday and accepted the government’s compensation, but questions surrounding exactly what happened to Sabari and the state’s role in preventing such incidents continue to linger.

According to a report published by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), the National Human Rights Commission recorded 2,739 custodial deaths in India in 2024, following nearly 2,400 deaths in 2023. The report also states that 1,995 prisoners died in judicial custody in 2022, including 159 classified as unnatural deaths.

Mirroring this broader pattern, Sabari’s death echoes a familiar pattern of constitutional rights violations and breach of the ‘Santhosh guidelines’ on the investigation of custodial deaths, highlighting the continued absence of long-promised custodial reform.

Family driven to agitate after being denied access to body

In Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district, three women were shattered after hearing on July 13 that their only son, brother and partner, S. Sabari Varman, who had a physical disability (his right limb is considerably shorter than his left), had died in custody. Sabari ran a small shop in the village and is survived by his ailing parents, his wife and their four-year-old son.

On reaching the hospital that day after being told Sabari had fallen sick in jail, the family was devastated to learn that he had died and that his body lay unclaimed in the mortuary.

“We waited for several hours to see his body, but we were repeatedly ignored and denied access during that time. We were told that the key to the mortuary had been misplaced,” says advocate Ershad Ahmed, who accompanied Sabari’s family.

The family members, along with relatives, staged a protest in front of the mortuary demanding to see Sabari’s body, doubting – correctly, as it later turned out – custodial torture.

The small grocery shop owned by S. Sabari Varman, behind which he lived in Ethankadu, Kanniyakumari, Photo: Akshara Sanal.

Order of events leading to Sabari’s death in custody

On July 9, the South Thamarikulam police arrested Sabari for allegedly possessing under 200 grams of gutka, a banned tobacco product. His mobile phone and two-wheeler were confiscated. After being declared medically fit, he was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody. He was lodged at the Nagercoil sub-jail the same day.

On July 10, his wife and his sister, along with their advocate, visited Sabari at the Nagercoil sub-jail. Advocate Siddharth assured him he would get him out on bail in a couple of days. His family claims Sabari seemed to be in good health during the visit.

On July 11 and 12, prison department official Yogeshwaran visited Sabari’s home and handed over a waist cord on one day and an ear stud on the other to his family members. Ahmed notes this violates the Prisons Act that requires a prisoner’s personal items to be in the jailer’s custody unless a court orders otherwise.

On Monday, July 13, around 6:30 am, Sabari’s wife said she was informed by a prison official that he was sick and had been admitted to the Kanniyakumari Government Medical College Hospital (KKGMCH) at Asaripallam.

On hearing the news, the family rushed to the hospital. According to his wife, they received another call an hour later informing them that Sabari had died of a heart attack.

Reports say that on July 13, the police found Sabari lying unconscious inside his cell early in the morning and rushed him to the KKGMCH, where doctors declared him dead on arrival around 6:05 am.

Aftermath of the........

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