Mr. Prem Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Cuddalore - Human Rights Organisation: www.tamilinfoservice.com/manitham

K. Premkumar, Superintendent of Police, Kancheepuram replies to his allegation

In a signed statement, Mr. Premkumar, the police officer said it was easy to "write some articles and state anything through the Press by leading a comfortable life at the cost of others. Only field level officers like me can understand how difficult it is to work under such pressures and remain undisturbed by such pressures to carry on the assigned task in the public interest. I have no personal interest in any matter which I have investigated to date nor have I exceeded the limits of law nor suppressed any truth for any purpose."

Describing the comments against him as "totally unwarranted and baseless," Mr. Premkumar said though certain remarks had been passed against him by a single judge of the Madras High Court, these were set aside and expunged by a Division Bench in early 2003. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court later. "Irrespective of religion, caste or creed, I have discharged my duties and proved that I am not a person who could be cowed down either by the slanderous campaign of the Press or by personal attacks against me or by character assassination or by any such means."

He added that "for having said slanderous things about me, however high such persons may be or whatever institution it could be, I have decided to seek remedy in the appropriate court of law in this context in as much as I am discharging my duty in the cause of the public for maintaining law and order and public order in the limited sphere assigned to me."

/ 10-12-2004

A History of Human Rights Abuses

Mr. Prem Kumar-presently Superintendent of Police, Cuddalore-has a record of torture and abuse of police powers reaching back to 1982. At that time, as a Sub-Inspector at the Vadipatti Police Station, he beat and tortured Mr. Subedhar Nallakaman, an Army veteran, as well as his wife and son. Twenty-one years later, the proceedings in this case have only recently produced a partial conviction. And yet, during the long course of this criminal investigation, as well as the other noted here, he has been allowed to rise to the rank of Superintendent of Police-a rank he continues to hold despite his conviction and record of brutality. Altogether, he has enjoyed an appalling immunity from criminal prosecution and administrative sanction. The full powers of the courts, too long tentative and sluggish, must now be marshaled to remove this man from the public office he has so abused.

Subedhar Nallakaman Case

In December 1981, Mr. Vairava Singh, Reserve Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Vadipatti entered into a housing dispute with his lessee Mr. Subedhar Nallakaman. Mr. Singh requested action against Mr. Nallakaman and his family by Mr. Prem Kumar, who served at the time as a Sub-Inspector of Police in the same district. Accordingly, on 15.12.1981 Mr. Nallakaman was compelled by threat and intimidation to give an undertaking letter and instructed to vacate the property by 01.02.1982. When, on that date, he refused to vacate without the return of the lease amount Rs. 5000/-, Mr. Prem Kumar and three police constables beat Mr. Nallakaman with lathis, causing him serious injury, and promised to lodge a false case against him. The three constables then brought Mr. Nallakaman's wife to the police station from the school where she worked as a teacher, calling her a prostitute, tearing at her clothes, and beating her with lathis in front of her husband. Both Mr. Nallakaman and his wife were subsequently beaten again, handcuffed, and put in lock-up before their son Madhavan arrived at the police station to aid his parents. He too was brutally assaulted by the police such that all three suffered grievous bodily harm at the hands of these officials. Mr. Nallakaman was later bound and paraded in the street, dragged to the Vadipatti Bus Stand, and beaten there before the public. He was then returned to the police station where Sub-Inspector Prem Kumar registered a case against Mr. Nallakaman, his wife, and his son (Crime No. 53/82) for offences under Sections 147, 148, 332, and 307 I.P.C., as if they had attempted to attack the police.

Public agitation and a memorandum submitted by Nallakaman and local villagers prompted the Government of Tamil Nadu to order the District Collector, Madurai to conduct an enquiry into the foregoing. The District Collector, in turn, directed the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) to investigate the matter. After examination of 83 witnesses, the RDO sent a detailed report to the Collector stating that Nallakaman and his family members had been tortured by the Sub-Inspector of Police and others in the Vadipatti Police Station. Thereafter, in pursuance of the Collector's order, the RDO filed charges in 1983 against the Sub-Inspector of Police Mr. Prem Kumar and three constables for offences under sections 342, 355, 354, 330, 220, 320 and 307 I.P.C.

Despite numerous and repeated directives to the trial courts by the Madras High Court for speedy disposal of all cases pertaining to these events, Mr. Prem Kumar forestalled a finding on the allegations against him until 2003. His recurring failure to appear in court, frivolous motions, provision of mala fide petitions, and a police refusal to execute non-bailable warrants against one of their own has dragged and delayed these proceedings across more than twenty years. Only in July 2003 was Mr. Prem Kumar finally found guilty of inflicting injury upon Mr. Nallakaman and his family. But even this judgment falls far short of the charges of attempted murder brought against him, and the reprimand issued by the trial court-in lieu of the punishment merited by his criminal behavior and subsequent abuse of official power-begs for appeal to the higher courts.

John Joseph Case

SP Prem Kumar has at the same time faced investigation in the case of John Joseph, who was arrested and tortured, along with four other innocent civilians, in order to extract coerced confessions in a pending murder investigation. On 4 September 1997, Mr. Kumar-then District Superintendent of Police (DSP) of the Special Branch, Nagercoil-arrested Mr. Joseph regarding an outstanding payment on a bank loan granted to his organization, the Charismatic Trust. Mr. Joseph was taken into custody along with five other employees and volunteers of the Charismatic Trust: Santhanarajan, Maria Doss, Gnanakan, and Sisters Sahayarani and Femina Rose. At the police station, DSP Kumar ordered Mr. Joseph to make the due payment. When Mr. Joseph responded that he was unable to make the payment at that time, DSP Kumar threatened to indict him on false charges. He then began to beat Mr. Joseph and the other detainees, assaults which continued at several subsequent locations.

Between beatings, the detainees were moved from one police station to another, and eventually to an Army Reserve Camp. Mr. Kumar pressured the other detainees to substantiate fabricated charges against Mr. Joseph. Among the crimes of which Mr. Joseph was falsely accused were: beating 18 year-old Gilbert Raj to death for refusing to have sexual intercourse with one of the Sisters of the Charismatic Trust, and raping a woman. When Mr. Joseph and the others refused to accept these false charges, they were tortured by Mr. Kumar. The DSP tore the sarees from the bodies of Sisters Sahayarani and Femina Rose and paraded them around the Army Camp naked. When he began to grope at their breasts and use a lathi to assault their private parts, Mr. Joseph agreed to confess to all of the charges fabricated against him, signing a statement prepared by Mr. Kumar. The DSP warned Mr. Joseph and the other witnesses that if they told anyone about the torture they had undergone in custody, their families would be made to suffer.

In 1997, John Joseph filed a case against Mr. Prem Kumar and a second DSP from Nagarcloil for violating his rights through unlawful arrest, lack of due process, and torture. His testimony was supported by the eyewitness accounts of the five other individuals detained from the 4th to the 6th of September, 1997, and by medical reports from 10 September 1997, which provide ample evidence of corporal abuse. The case was further strengthened by the lack of any effort on behalf of DSP Kumar and fellow police officers to defend their actions.

On 3 October 2002, the Madras High Court instructed the CBC "to launch prosecution against Prem Kumar, former DSP, Special Branch, Nagercoil…who [was] involved in the offences relating to the illegal custody of the injured persons and torture committed on them, especially on women." The Court gave the CBCID a maximum of three months to carry out their investigation, but it was not completed until August 2004. At that time, the progress of the case was further delayed by an audit submitted by Mr. Kumar, who argued that the investigation was illegitimate because it had been filed under the incorrect First Information Report. Most recently, the Madras High Court supported this petition and ordered a new investigation that, once again, allowed Mr. Kumar to forestall a judgment against him and thwart the execution of justice.