On 8 July 2025, Sivaganga Congress MP Karti Chidambaram visited the family of Ajith Kumar, the 27-year-old from Thirubhuvanam in Sivaganga district, who died after reportedly being beaten by a special police unit. Chidambaram offered his sincere condolences and expressed full support to the grieving family.
சிவகங்கை பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் திரு @KartiPC அவர்கள் திருப்புவனம் மடப்புரம் கிராமத்தில் போலீசார் விசாரணையில் இறந்த அஜித்குமார் அவர்களது இல்லத்திற்கு சென்று அவரது குடும்பத்தினருக்கு ஆறுதல் தெரிவித்த போது. @INCTamilNadu #ajithkumarissue #AjithKumar pic.twitter.com/qZXbPBOXkK
— Karti PC Office (@KartiPCoffice) July 8, 2025
Speaking to reporters, Chidambaram strongly criticized the police, calling their methods unprofessional and calling for a full-scale overhaul including psychological screening and comprehensive retraining of all personnel. He urged the CBI to swiftly investigate the incident and make their findings public.
He said, “If they are using that method (third degree investigation), it means they have no professionalism. What kind of investigative capacity is this? A complaint came in about eight sovereigns of gold being stolen – I don’t know if that complaint is true or false. If this police force uses third-degree methods to investigate that, what kind of professionalism does this police force have? What kind of capacity do they possess? The police force with no capacity at all. Therefore, this is a systemic problem. I don’t see this as a political problem or an issue with the current government. Similar incidents have occurred in past administrations; the Bennix, Jayakumar (Jayaraj) incident happened under a previous government. However, what worries me is that there has been no change since then. So, if a wholesale change is needed – a complete transformation – then in my opinion, everyone from the DGP down to the last constable must undergo re-training. Not just re-training, but also psychological evaluation. Everyone needs to undergo a mental assessment. I accept that police officers are under a lot of stress, but they too need psychological evaluation. They need a complete re-training. Change will only happen with a wholesale reform. Because I don’t believe this will stop with Ajith Kumar. If this culture continues, what happened to Ajith Kumar today will happen to someone else tomorrow.”
A reported questioned, “They say there was pressure from the secretariat.”
Karti Chidambaram responded, “All of that must be investigated by the CBI. The CBI must investigate. Why did a special team go to investigate a small theft? I know that many incidents happen in many places. Special teams don’t go for everything. However, all the news I receive comes from the media. Why did a special team go? Who sent this special team? The CBI must investigate all this quickly and submit their findings to the public.”
He further said, “It is wrong to say that this happened because of this government, this is a cultural problem. Similar incidents have occurred in the previous government also. I won’t blame that government for those incidents. I won’t say the Sathankulam incident happened because of Edappadi Palaniswami. This is the culture of the police. The police is a colonial police, they have not shed their colonial mindset of the British. As long as they have this colonial mindset, this will not change. Neither is Edappadi Palaniswami the reason for this nor is today’s chief minister, Stalin. Edappadi Palaniswami did not create this problem and pass it on to this government nor did this government create it themselves. The real reason for this problem is the mindset of the police. It is the Jallianwala Bagh mentality. General Dyer’s mentality continues to this day and for that to change wholesale police reform has to take place.”
My brief press interaction after paying my respects to #AjithKumar Police must shed its colonial mindset. Retraining of the entire police force is needed @tnpoliceoffl https://t.co/pK3DLf6eU3 pic.twitter.com/xOptFDpZiY
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) July 8, 2025
Background
Ajith Kumar, a 27-year-old youth from Thirubhuvanam in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga district, died after allegedly being subjected to custodial violence by a special police team. The incident has triggered widespread outrage across the state, drawing comparisons to the 2020 custodial deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix in Sathankulam.
According to reports, Ajith Kumar worked as a security guard at the Bhadrakalyamman temple in Madapuram. On 27 June 2025, a woman named Sivagami, accompanied by her daughter Nikitha, visited the temple. Sivagami, who has mobility issues, arrived in a car and handed over the vehicle keys to Ajith Kumar. As he did not know how to drive, he arranged for someone else to park the car and later returned the keys.
Subsequently, Nikitha alleged that 9.5 sovereigns of gold jewelry and ₹2,500 in cash had gone missing from the vehicle. A complaint was filed with the Thirubhuvanam police. Without registering a formal FIR, police officers reportedly detained Ajith Kumar and held him in the temple’s cowshed, where he was subjected to a violent assault by a special police unit. He died as a result of the injuries sustained during the interrogation.
Following public outcry, five police personnel involved in the incident have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. The Tamil Nadu government has announced that the investigation will be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and a judicial inquiry is also underway.
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