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Custodial torture victim shifted to hospital

Woman slowly emerging from trauma of police torture
Coimbatore: The Udumalpet custodial torture victim Chitra (name changed) was examined by a team of five doctors at the Omandurar multi super specialty hospital in Chennai on Saturday.
“Apart from treating her for injuries sustained in that police brutality, the doctors are counseling her to handle her mental trauma”, said her sister Rukmani, who visited Chitra in the hospital along with their father Thavamani.
In his humane order passed on Friday after hearing her in an in-camera proceeding in his chamber, Justice V Ramasubramanian of the Madras high court had ordered the transfer of Chitra from her cell in the Coimbatore women’s prison to the Omandurar hospital for treatment and also permitted her family to visit her twice a day, noting that she “is not even able to walk”. He also ordered that no police person should meet her, barring the women TSP guards assigned for security.
The judge’s observations and the interim order followed a petition from Chitra’s daughter Rajakumari alleging that her 49-year-old mother, a daily wageworker in a small hotel in Udumalpet, was tortured by seven police persons in the station to extract a confession that she had killed her landlady (on August 10). Chitra was hung by her legs, dressed only in undergarments and beaten up severely by the policemen who also inserted a lathi into her private parts, the daughter said in her petition to the court.
“For the first time in the last 20 days and more, Chitra is not surrounded by the intimidating police and prison uniforms, following the court order sending her to the hospital. But then, she is still very tense and is not talking to anyone except her family members and us (her lawyers)”, said her counsel M. Purushothaman. Along with her lawyer based in Coimbatore, this correspondent had visited Chitra in the prison and reported how badly bruised she was, mentally and physically.
The Deccan Chronicle report was also mentioned by her lawyers before Justice Ramasubramanian. Speaking to DC, Mr Ramesh, nodal officer of the Omandurar hospital, said Chitra is being well taken care of and provided with psychological counseling.
“An Ortho surgeon checked her for the pain and injuries. We have taken blood for tests to evaluate how all the organs are functioning. A MRI scan has been done. Doctors are counseling her to reduce mental stress”, he said.
“Chitra is a little relaxed now. She is extremely thankful to the judge for ordering her medical treatment. Her legs are still swollen and she is complaining of pain all over”, said her sister Rukmani after the hospital visit. “We hope this treatment would heal her physical injuries and enable her to face the ordeal.”
Chitra’s daughter Rajakumari, a resident of Madurai, has sold a cow and two calves to meet the expenses. The poor family, determined to get justice, lives on the pavements of Chennai, close to the hospital.
( Source : dc )
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