The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Fifth Additional Sessions Court in Madurai to complete the trial in the case of illegal custodial torture death of temple security guard B. Ajith Kumar in Sivaganga district within nine months.The court was hearing the petitions filed by the accused in the custodial death case: the then Manamadurai Deputy Superintendent of Police N.

Shanmugasundaram, the then Thirupuvanam Inspector S.P. Ramesh Kumar, the then sub-inspector S.

Sivakumar and the then head constable G. Ilayaraja.

They challenged the remand order passed by the Fifth Additional Sessions Judge in Madurai.Dismissing the petitions, Justice P. Murugan said the accused merely challenging the order of remand under Section 528 of the BNSS without approaching bail jurisdiction was not correct.

Once the accused have been remanded in judicial custody with a reasoned order, they must work out their remedy before the appropriate forum for bail. The court confirmed the remand order.The court said the case records revealed that based on the initial chargesheet, there were 103 witnesses, 102 documents, and 14 articles.

As per the supplementary chargesheet, there were 43 witnesses, 21 documents, and 35 articles. Altogether, there were 146 witnesses, 123 documents, and 49 articles to be placed as evidence in the custodial death case.The court directed all the accused in the case to cooperate with the trial court to expedite the trial.

If the accused adopted any delaying tactics, it was left open to the trial court to pass appropriate orders based on the circumstances prevailing at the time of the examination of the witnesses.The CBI filed a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet in the case. Five police personnel: S.

Raja, A. Anand, S.

Sankaramanikandan, G. Prabhu, and G.

Kannan were arrested and remanded in judicial custody. Subsequently, police driver P.

Ramachandran was remanded in judicial custody. In the supplementary chargesheet, the CBI additionally named N.

Shanmugasundaram, S.P. Ramesh Kumar, S.

Sivakumar and G. Ilayaraja as accused.

Charges were framed against the 10 accused police personnel, including under Section 103 (1) (murder) of the BNS. Published - November 04, 2026 08:36 pm IST