Custodial violence remains one of the gravest affronts to the rule of law. The State is vested with coercive powers to investigate crime. However, such powers can never extend to infliction of torture, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has said.Justice L. Victoria Gowri said the constitutional promise under Article 21 did not end at the gates of a police station. Every person, irrespective of the allegations against him, retained his fundamental right to life, dignity and bodily integrity.The court directed the CB-CID to conclude as expeditiously as possible the investigation into the custodial death of Scheduled Caste youth R. Akash Delison of Manamadurai in Sivaganga district.The court appreciated Manamadurai Judicial Magistrate M. Afzal Fathima, whose remand proceedings ensured preservation of a crucial contemporaneous account that now formed part of the investigative record. Judicial sensitivity at the remand stage often became the most effective institutional safeguard against abuse of custodial power, the court said.It said the remand report revealed that instead of mechanically authorising judicial custody, the JM visited Government Sivaganga Medical College Hospital, identified the accused through the duty doctor, interacted with him, noticed the extensive injury to his right leg, elicited from him the circumstances leading to the injury and recorded the allegations made by him regarding custodial torture and ill-treatment.The JM further recorded the explanation offered by the accused regarding the scratches found on his body and noted the complaint of torture made against police personnel, the court said.The court said the remand proceeding was not a mere administrative formality. The remand court was often the first constitutional safeguard available to a citizen after arrest. The duty of the remand magistrate extended beyond examining the papers produced by the investigating agency and included a meaningful interaction with the accused so as to ascertain whether guarantees under Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Constitution had been observed.The Investigating Officer should complete the investigation as expeditiously as possible and file the final report before the jurisdictional court in accordance with law, the court said while disposing of the petition filed by A. Rajeshkannan, the father of the deceased, who had sought a direction to the State to register a criminal case for the murder arising out of the alleged custodial torture, under the relevant provisions of the BNS, along with the relevant provisions of the SC/ST Act. Published - June 10, 2026 10:14 pm IST