When Police Used a Child Victim to Nab his Father in a Murder Case

By Gokul Vannan

Madurai, Tamil Nadu: Santosh* (12) stopped playing with friends and entered the house as his mother, Mahalakshmi*, chided him for being outside till late in the evening. He did not realise then that it was the last time his mother would be scolding him. After dinner, he, along with his three sisters, slept near their mother in the rented house at Kalaivani Nagar, Ilangipatti, near Madurai.

Around midnight, he was jolted out of sleep by neighbours. “We four stood in the street, half asleep and perplexed. We could hear people murmur that our father Pandi* killed our mother,” Santosh recalled.

He looked up at his sister Eswari*, who is two years older, in utter shock. Much to his dismay, she parroted the neighbours’ version of murder. His younger sisters were too small to understand the incident that happened on September 30, 2018.

A case was registered based on a complaint lodged by P Vasu, who had rented his house to Pandi’s family. According to the First Information Report registered at Othakadai Police Station, Eswari saw her mother lying unconscious with head injuries and alerted the neighbours. 

Santosh, now 17, clearly understood what it meant to be an orphan when police implicated his father on a charge of murder. “For three to four days after the incident, we were confined to the pavement outside the house during the day. We slept at the entrance of the village library at night. Our landlord provided us with food. We ate on the muddy pavement,” he recalled. 

The behaviour of the police had a psychological impact on young Santosh. “The police neither showed compassion nor took any step to provide us with a shelter. Instead, they used me as an instrument to arrest my father.” 

Every day, police took Santosh to the Othakadai station. Once there, they would hand over his mother's mobile phone and instruct him to call his father. The police had convinced Santosh not to inform his father that he was under their custody.  Though Pandi did not respond to his calls for three consecutive days, he had to repeat the exercise until late in the evening.

“Not even on a single day, the police provided food for my three sisters when they dropped me off in the village at night,” he exclaimed.

When Pandi finally called back, the police asked Santosh to pick up the call, during which Pandi told Santosh to come with his sisters to the Dindigul bus stand. The next day, police in plain clothes took the children to the spot and secured Pandi.

“I felt sad when our father pleaded his innocence to the police and repeatedly told us that he did not kill our mother.” ‘My son, why did you not tell me that the police were with you when I called?’, Pandi had deplored.   

Within the next few hours, Pandi faded from their sight. The police left the four kids in the village in the evening, while another team remanded their father in jail. “Only our pet dog showed unconditional love to us. It never left us alone,” said Santosh, recalling how his mother fondly named it Thirumalai.

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Advocate intervenes

Pandi's children would have been forgotten if not for the timely intervention of KR Raja, an advocate at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court. “I visited the village after reading about the case in a Tamil daily. On witnessing the pathetic condition of the children, I immediately contacted the then chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee [CWC] of Madurai,” Raja told 101Reporters. In fact, the CWC chairperson was not aware of the incident, and the investigating officer had not even alerted the CWC or the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) about the situation.

Under Section 107 (1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, in every police station, at least one officer, below the rank of assistant sub-inspector, with aptitude, appropriate training and orientation may be designated as the child welfare police officer to exclusively deal with children either as victims or perpetrators, in coordination with the police, voluntary and non-governmental organisations.

“While the Act clearly specifies the role, the investigating officer in this case merely used a minor boy as a tool to lure and arrest his father. It is tantamount to abuse of a child victim because Santosh was aged less than 18 then,” Raja clarified. 

The advocate coordinated with child helpline staff, police and CWC members to rescue the children and transfer them to temporary shelter homes in Madurai city. “Besides collecting their government documents to facilitate school admissions and to avail of the victim compensation fund, I also purchased for nearly Rs 25,000 all the essential items needed for their stay in a hostel, with the help of a senior police officer,” he said.

Subsequently, the CWC relocated them to a children’s home in T Kallupatti, Madurai district, and enrolled them in the local school.

Meanwhile, at the police station

After his arrest, Pandi says he faced police torture to admit to the crime. “I was in my native Periya Mallanampatti in Dindigul district at the time of my wife’s murder, but they refused to listen to me,” he said, pointing at the scars on his left leg that he claimed to have sustained in police torture. 

“Police were only concerned about framing me on false charges... I could not contact my relatives to arrange a lawyer because the police had snatched away my mobile phone,” he claimed. Pandi clarified that neither the police nor the Judicial Magistrate Court at Melur informed him about free legal aid services. 

When Pandi understood that he would be remanded, he handed over Rs 20,000 and a gold ring to the police, requesting them to pass it on to his children. However, the valuables allegedly never reached the children.

As his repeated pleas to meet his children were turned down, Pandi launched a fast unto death in jail. “I refused to eat for 20 days, surviving only on water. Finally, a kind-hearted prison warden arranged to file a bail petition through one of my relatives.”

Three months into the murder, Pandi was released on bail and has remained so since then. Upon his release, he got to know that advocate Raja had rescued his children through CWC. "When I saw them, I started crying, hugging them tightly. Though three of my kids understood that I did not kill Mahalakshmi, Eswari refused to talk to me,” he said. “I am alive only for my children.” 

Pandi was charged under Section 302 of the IPC for murder over a property dispute and suspected infidelity. "After the police filed a chargesheet in the Madurai District Mahila Court [trial court], it asked Pandi whether he had committed the crime. He pleaded not guilty," said G Sathish Raj Kumar, an advocate who represents him pro bono in the court in the ongoing trial. 

The court further asked Pandi whether he could afford a lawyer to represent him or if he would take help from the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). Initially, he availed of the services of an advocate through DLSA, but later preferred advocate Kumar, who helps the poor in cases involving human rights issues. 

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Victim compensation fund 

The three younger children are doing well in studies, while the eldest works at a textile factory in Tiruppur. “Raja sir often visits us in the hostel and motivates us to study well. I have completed class 12, and my younger sisters are in class 10 and class 9. I want to join the army,” said Santosh.

According to Raja, the family is yet to receive the victim compensation fund. “I filed a petition under the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes, 2018, through Madurai DLSA in October 2018 itself.” 

Raja is helping 448 children who have lost either one or both parents in criminal cases associated with family disputes, through his non-profit, the Global Network for Equality (GNE).

Citing a lacuna, the advocate said that the police do not document the victims’ children who need care and protection in family dispute cases involving crime and murder. “GNE has documented 57 such cases reported last year in newspapers in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

The latest policy note by Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment highlights this gap - those under the government radar are far less than the actual numbers. According to the note, the state ensures the rehabilitation, protection, and care of children whose parents are incarcerated through financial aid, education, and foster care support. “Some children are accommodated in child care institutions run by the Government and NGOs with proper care and protection.  The number of children who have benefited from financial assistance so far is 22 children in 2021-2022, 20 children in 2022-2023, 41 children in 2023-2024 and 48 children in 2024-2025.  Additionally, three children have benefited from foster care support,” the note said. 

Though civil society groups create awareness among police personnel designated for the care and protection of children, their seniors do not allow them to perform their duties. “The police mentality is that care and protection of children does not fall under their purview. They are only interested in approaching the issue from a crime investigation perspective,” said a government official involved in childcare and protection. This approach makes the child-friendly provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act ineffective.

*Names changed to protect identity

This article was originally published in 101 Reporters under Creative Common license. Read the original article.

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