Six police officials of the Virajpet Town police station are on trial for allegedly illegally confining and assaulting 50-year-old Roy with weapons during the intervening night of June 9 and 10, 2021. His family took him to a hospital on June 10, and he died on June 12.
Roy’s case is one of six cases involving deaths after alleged custodial torture between January 2020 and February 2025 in which the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed chargesheets against police personnel for offences ranging from assault to causing death by negligence. During the period, the CID investigated 35 cases with varying outcomes.
In Roy’s case, the chargesheet filed on July 31, 2023, accused police officers Thanukumar HG, Lokesh NS, Sunil MU, Sathish NS, Nehru Arun Kumar KC, and Sangamesha of assault under Sections 323, which deals with voluntarily causing hurt, and 324, which deals with voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means, of the Indian Penal Code.
Three of the six accused officers list their permanent addresses in Kodagu district, while one is from Vijayapura district. The permanent addresses of the other two officers are not mentioned in the chargesheet.
On July 9, the Principal Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class in Virajpet accepted the charges framed by the CID. The trial began with Roy’s mother, Matilda D’Souza, testifying before the court on August 31.
The chargesheet accuses the police of assault but does not charge them with causing Roy’s death, relying on the medical opinion that he died of a heart attack caused by heart disease.
However, two forensic doctors who examined the post mortem report at TNM’s request said the findings did not support that conclusion. Both doctors said the post mortem and histopathology reports contained no indication of heart disease and that the possibility of the injuries contributing to the heart attack had not been ruled out.
Roy had suffered severe injuries. The post mortem found 24 external injuries on his body, including six abrasions, 17 contusions and one torn fingernail. At least two bruises on his back were described by forensic doctors as “tram track” injuries, consisting of clear parallel lines that are typical of police torture.
During her testimony on August 31, Matilda denied having any knowledge of the alleged assault on Roy by the six police officers named in the chargesheet.
“Around 3–4 years ago, when my son was unwell I took him to Ashwini Hospital in Madikeri and I signed a paper. I don’t remember for what and in which place I signed (the FIR, spot mahazar, and seizure mahazar),” Matilda said.
The spot mahazar was drawn on June 16, 2021, at the Virajpet Rural police station to identify the location where Roy was found lying injured after the assault. The seizure mahazar was drawn on July 2, 2021, when police collected the clothes Roy had worn on the day of the alleged assault from Matilda.
“Because my son had fits, I don’t know what he did and where. The police did not do any mahazar in my presence and I never gave the police any objects. I never gave the police any statement,” Matilda told the court.
The prosecution then declared her hostile and cross-examined her.
During cross-examination, Matilda denied the allegations she had previously made in the FIR and subsequently.
Matilda had earlier told police that Roy left home after 11 pm on June 9. She said he had not taken his medicines, was very angry and was shouting.
During cross-examination, she admitted that a relative had called her and said they had to fetch Roy because he was creating a ruckus on the main road with unknown people who had assaulted him with weapons.
She also admitted that Roy was injured and bleeding when they brought him home from near the Virajpet private bus stand at around 2 am on June 10, 2021. She said she and her relatives took him to a hospital when he did not wake up the following morning.
However, she denied meeting the head constable of the Virajpet Town police station at the hospital between 6.15 pm and 7.15 pm, where she allegedly lodged a complaint that led to the FIR.
She also denied before the court what she had previously told the magistrate during the inquest: that early on June 10, a police vehicle came near her house and told her relatives that Roy was at the police station, following which she and her relatives picked him up from the police station.
“It is not true that on that day, Roy told me that the police beat him to a pulp,” she told the court.
Matilda also denied that Roy’s body was swollen and his fingers were bleeding when they changed his clothes after bringing him home that night.
“It is not true that the police called me that day around 9 am and asked about Roy, saying that I will be in trouble if I say that the police assaulted Roy,” she told the court.
She further denied receiving a call that day telling her to take Roy to a good hospital in Mangaluru and assuring her that the expenses would be taken care of. It is unclear from her deposition, which is accessible online, whom she received the call from.
Matilda also denied that the alleged police assault had anything to do with Roy’s death.
“It is not true to say that Roy died on June 12, 2021, of a heart attack because the accused together assaulted Roy with lathis and their hands, and kicked him with their legs. It is not true that I am colluding with the accused in order to help them by giving a false statement despite having full information about the case,” she told the court.
Matilda’s decision to turn hostile to the prosecution raises the possibility of intimidation, particularly because local newspapers in Kodagu district had reported alleged attempts to influence her in the days following Roy’s death.
On June 14, 2021, four women went to Matilda’s house in Virajpet on the pretext of offering condolences, Kannada daily Shakti reported. Matilda’s other son, Robin, later told the media that he suspected the women were the wives of four of the accused police officers. Shakti also published pictures with the report.
Shakti reported that on June 15, two local police officers in uniform went to Matilda’s house while allegedly pretending to be CID officers investigating the case. They allegedly asked Matilda to hand over the clothes Roy was wearing and sign a blank sheet of paper. Robin told Shakti that Matilda refused to do either.
Matilda’s testimony has therefore emerged as a significant development in the trial of the six Virajpet police officials, despite the chargesheet’s reliance on the medical opinion that Roy died of a heart attack caused by heart disease and the forensic doctors’ assessment that the post mortem findings did not indicate heart disease and did not rule out the role of his injuries in causing the heart attack.
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