அஜித் குமாருக்கு நீதி கிடைத்தது... எங்களுக்கு ஒண்ணும் கிடைக்கலயே | BUFFOON TAMIL

A tribal man detained by forest officials died during inquiry at the Udumalpet forest range office Thursday early morning.

The deceased has been identified as P Marimuthu (58), of Mel Kurumalai hamlet in Tiruppur district.

The forest officials claimed that Marimuthu died by suicide in the toilet of the range office while being interrogated on charges of possessing leopard teeth. However, tribal activists and his family alleged that this could be a case of custodial torture. They claimed he was "illegally detained" by the forest department.

Marimuthu belonged to the Muthuvan tribal community. Met Kurumalai hamlet falls under the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).

Marimuthu and his family had moved to Suriyanelli near Munnar in Kerala a few years ago.

On Wednesday, Marimuthu travelled to Udumalpet to complete legal proceedings related to a ganja case filed against him, in which he had recently been acquitted.

While returning to Munnar from Udumalpet, officials from the Kerala Excise Department (Munnar circle) stopped the bus and conducted a search of the belongings of the passengers at a checkpoint in Chinnar - a state border area.

During the search, they found something resembling a leopard teeth in Marimuthu's possession.

Following this, he was handed over to the Kerala Forest Department for further investigation. The Kerala forest officials handed him over to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department (Udumalpet Range) after allegedly he confessed that he obtained the teeth from a person named Shankar in Udumalpet.

Marimuthu was brought to the Udumalpet forest range office at 12.02 am on Thursday for an investigation into the network of smuggling. Based on his statement regarding the smuggling of the leopard teeth, the forest staff was preparing for his judicial remand. However, at around 4.30 am on Thursday, he reportedly died by suicide in the toilet of the range office, according to D Venkatesh, Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of ATR.

Following the incident, Marimuthu's body was sent to Udumalpet General Hospital for a postmortem examination, and the Tiruppur District police initiated an inquiry.

Meanwhile, Marimuthu's daughter, M Sindhu, submitted a petition to the Udumalpet police, alleging foul play in her father's death.

She accused the forest department of illegally detaining her father on Thursday without informing his family and only declaring his death on Friday.


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