{
 "record_id": "CW-2026-0047",
 "status": "current",
 "merged_id": "CWC-0858",
 "alias_merged_ids": [],
 "display_title": "A.C. Karthikeyan and Others vs State Human Rights Commission Tamil Nadu and Others",
 "display_title_redacted": "A.C. Karthikeyan and Others vs State Human Rights Commission Tamil Nadu and Others",
 "state": "Tamil Nadu",
 "district": "Kanniyakumari",
 "district_at_time": null,
 "city_town": "Marthandam",
 "police_station_or_unit": "Marthandam Police Station / DSP Thuckalay Special Squad",
 "court": "Madras High Court",
 "court_as_verified": "Madras High Court",
 "bench": "Madurai",
 "case_title": "A.C. Karthikeyan and Others vs State Human Rights Commission Tamil Nadu and Others",
 "case_number": "W.P.(MD) Nos.22673, 24168, 23338 and 23362 of 2022 and 14715 of 2023",
 "citation": null,
 "judges": [
  "G.R. Swaminathan",
  "R. Kalaimathi"
 ],
 "judgment_date": "2026-02-27",
 "date_precision": "day",
 "judgment_year": 2026,
 "incident_date": "2019-05-30",
 "incident_year": 2019,
 "category": "Custodial torture",
 "admin_category": "brutality",
 "admin_subcategory": "custodial_torture",
 "subcategory": "custodial_torture",
 "subcategory_display": "custodial torture",
 "protest_override_heuristic": false,
 "outcome_type": "adverse_finding_compensation",
 "sections": [
  "Protection of Human Rights Act 1993",
  "COTPA 2003 s.24(1)",
  "Juvenile Justice Act 2015 s.77",
  "Constitution Art. 226"
 ],
 "officers": [
  {
   "name": "A.C. Karthikeyan",
   "rank": "Deputy Superintendent of Police",
   "role": "held_liable",
   "unit": "Thuckalay, Kanniyakumari District",
   "publish_grade": "named_safe",
   "gate_reasons": [],
   "ledger_role": "held_liable",
   "key2": "yes",
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": 0.06,
   "jev_p_culpable": 0.94,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": "none_found",
   "name_public": "A.C. Karthikeyan",
   "display": "A.C. Karthikeyan (Deputy Superintendent of Police)"
  },
  {
   "name": "R. Senthilkumar",
   "rank": "Inspector of Police",
   "role": "held_liable",
   "unit": "Marthandam Police Station",
   "publish_grade": "named_safe",
   "gate_reasons": [],
   "ledger_role": "held_liable",
   "key2": "yes",
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": 0.11,
   "jev_p_culpable": 0.86,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": "none_found",
   "name_public": "R. Senthilkumar",
   "display": "R. Senthilkumar (Inspector of Police)"
  },
  {
   "name": "Mohan Kumar",
   "rank": null,
   "role": "held_liable",
   "unit": "Special Squad attached to DSP office, Thuckalay",
   "publish_grade": "named_safe",
   "gate_reasons": [],
   "ledger_role": "held_liable",
   "key2": "yes",
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": 0.45,
   "jev_p_culpable": 0.74,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": "none_found",
   "name_public": "Mohan Kumar",
   "display": "Mohan Kumar"
  },
  {
   "name": "M. Stephen Arul Raj",
   "rank": null,
   "role": "held_liable",
   "unit": "Special Squad attached to DSP office, Thuckalay",
   "publish_grade": "named_safe",
   "gate_reasons": [],
   "ledger_role": "held_liable",
   "key2": "yes",
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": 0.53,
   "jev_p_culpable": 0.64,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": "none_found",
   "name_public": "M. Stephen Arul Raj",
   "display": "M. Stephen Arul Raj"
  }
 ],
 "officer_count": 4,
 "victims": [
  {
   "name": null,
   "age": 63,
   "gender": "male",
   "descriptor": "Marthandam man, age 63"
  }
 ],
 "victims_redacted": null,
 "anonymised": false,
 "victim_count": 1,
 "sentence_type": "compensation_only",
 "sentence_max_years": null,
 "compensation_inr": 600000,
 "force": "state_police",
 "primary_source_url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/53901862/",
 "secondary_sources": [
  "https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/madras-high-court-scoffs-at-police-claim-that-63-year-old-caused-his-own-head-injuries-in-police-custody"
 ],
 "summary": "A Division Bench upheld the SHRC finding that 63-year-old a Marthandam man was falsely implicated in a gutka case, illegally arrested and assaulted in custody at Kotticode police station on 30-31 May 2019, sustaining head injuries proved by medical records. The court rejected the police claim that a Marthandam man injured himself as fantastic and fastened liability on the DSP who directed the action, the Inspector who made the illegal arrest without following D.K. Basu guidelines, and two special-squad members. It dismissed the officers writ petitions and confirmed the SHRC award of Rs.6,00,000 compensation with recovery of Rs.3,00,000 from the DSP and Rs.1,00,000 each from the other three. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.",
 "summary_verified": "A Division Bench upheld the SHRC finding that 63-year-old a Marthandam man was falsely implicated in a gutka case, illegally arrested and assaulted in custody at Kotticode police station on 30-31 May 2019, sustaining head injuries proved by medical records. The court rejected the police claim that a Marthandam man injured himself as fantastic and fastened liability on the DSP who directed the action, the Inspector who made the illegal arrest without following D.K. Basu guidelines, and two special-squad members. It dismissed the officers writ petitions and confirmed the SHRC award of Rs.6,00,000 compensation with recovery of Rs.3,00,000 from the DSP and Rs.1,00,000 each from the other three.",
 "court_quote": "We can invoke the rule of commonsense and easily conclude that the story that the complainant hit himself and that is how the head injuries were caused is fantastic.",
 "court_quote_para": "10",
 "confidence": "high",
 "verdict": "accept",
 "verdict_note": "HC dismissed officers writs, confirmed SHRC Rs.6L award for custodial assault of 63-year-old.",
 "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 torture",
   "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": "2026-02-27",
   "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 600,000.",
   "disposition": "Compensation ordered · Supports allegation (for the compensated wrong only)",
   "source": "W.P.(MD) Nos.22673, 24168, 23338 and 23362 of 2022 and 14715 of 2023",
   "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/53901862/",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/madras-high-court-scoffs-at-police-claim-that-63-year-old-caused-his-own-head-injuries-in-police-custody",
   "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-68"
 ],
 "merged_case_id": "GAP2-40-001",
 "officers_named_public": 4,
 "record_flag": null,
 "service": "police",
 "watch": "babuwatch"
}