{ "record_id": "CW-2004-0010", "status": "current", "merged_id": "CWC-0828", "alias_merged_ids": [], "display_title": "The Secretary, Ministry of Railways & The General Manager, Southern Railway v. Smt. S. Santhanamary & Ors.", "display_title_redacted": "The Secretary, Ministry of Railways & The General Manager, Southern Railway v. Smt. S. Santhanamary & Ors.", "state": "Tamil Nadu", "district": "Chennai", "district_at_time": null, "city_town": "Chennai", "police_station_or_unit": "Tondiarpet Marshalling Yard RPF Station", "court": "Madras High Court", "court_as_verified": "Madras High Court", "bench": null, "case_title": "The Secretary, Ministry of Railways & The General Manager, Southern Railway v. Smt. S. Santhanamary & Ors.", "case_number": "Writ Appeal No. 852 of 2002", "citation": "(2004) 04 MAD CK 0035", "judges": [ "P. K. Misra", "A. S. Venkatachala Moorthy" ], "judgment_date": "2004-04-22", "date_precision": "day", "judgment_year": 2004, "incident_date": "1991-09-01", "incident_year": 1991, "category": "Custodial death", "admin_category": "brutality", "admin_subcategory": "custodial_death", "subcategory": "custodial_death", "subcategory_display": "custodial death", "protest_override_heuristic": false, "outcome_type": "adverse_finding_compensation", "sections": [ "Constitution Art. 21" ], "officers": [], "officer_count": null, "victims": [ { "age": 28, "gender": "male", "name": null, "descriptor": "Chennai man, age 28" } ], "victims_redacted": null, "anonymised": false, "victim_count": 1, "sentence_type": "compensation_only", "sentence_max_years": null, "compensation_inr": 100000, "force": "railway", "primary_source_url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/362443/", "secondary_sources": [ "https://www.courtkutchehry.com/judgements/15791/the-secretary-ministry-of-railways-and-the-general-manager/" ], "summary": "On 22 April 2004 a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dismissed the Railways' writ appeal and upheld a single judge's direction to pay Rs. 1,00,000 compensation for a custodial death. The deceased, aged about 28, was apprehended by the Railway Protection Force around 00:30 on 1 September 1991, secured in the Tondiarpet Marshalling Yard RPF lock-up at 04:30, and found dead at 05:00. The court found on a preponderance of probabilities that he died on account of torture, rejecting the natural-death defence where no inquest or post-mortem material was preserved or produced. Rs. 50,000 already disbursed was adjusted against the award, with the balance payable with 9% interest. Individual RPF personnel were not identified in the judgment. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.", "summary_verified": "On 22 April 2004 a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dismissed the Railways' writ appeal and upheld a single judge's direction to pay Rs. 1,00,000 compensation for a custodial death. The deceased, aged about 28, was apprehended by the Railway Protection Force around 00:30 on 1 September 1991, secured in the Tondiarpet Marshalling Yard RPF lock-up at 04:30, and found dead at 05:00. The court found on a preponderance of probabilities that he died on account of torture, rejecting the natural-death defence where no inquest or post-mortem material was preserved or produced. Rs. 50,000 already disbursed was adjusted against the award, with the balance payable with 9% interest. Individual RPF personnel were not identified in the judgment.", "court_quote": "In the absence of any prima facie acceptable material, the inevitable conclusion is that the deceased must have died on account of torture.", "court_quote_para": "15", "confidence": "high", "verdict": "accept", "verdict_note": "Division Bench judgment verified via mirror; torture finding and Rs.1 lakh award upheld.", "verification_status": "V2", "verification_badge": "V2 · Externally reported", "tier_badge": "Externally reported", "tier": "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded", "tier_history": [ "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded" ], "allegations": [ { "category": "Custodial death", "primary": true, "position": "Material fact supported", "position_explainer": "Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.", "official_finding_relation": "supports allegation" } ], "institutional_response": [ { "date": "2004-04-22", "action_type": "Order issued", "status": "Concluded", "authority": "Madras High Court", "independence": "External", "legal_effect": "Binding", "description": "The Madras High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 100,000.", "disposition": "Compensation ordered · Supports allegation (for the compensated wrong only)", "source": "(2004) 04 MAD CK 0035", "recheck": "Not yet re-checked." } ], "later_proceedings": [], "final_outcome_url": null, "followup_history": [ { "date": "2026-09-19", "scope": "Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass", "method": "skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl)", "result": "holds", "corrections_applied": [] } ], "followup_status": "checked", "last_checked": "2026-09-19", "link_checked_per_url": [ { "url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/362443/", "link_checked": null }, { "url": "https://www.courtkutchehry.com/judgements/15791/the-secretary-ministry-of-railways-and-the-general-manager/", "link_checked": null } ], "source_assessment": { "established": null, "basis": null }, "v3_basis": null, "publication_basis": null, "reviews": [], "retracted": { "is_retracted": false }, "fidelity_checked": true, "verified_by": [ "chunk-64" ], "merged_case_id": "GAP2-37-001", "officers_named_public": 0, "record_flag": null, "service": "police", "watch": "babuwatch" }