The Last Visit
On Wednesday, April 4, 2012, Cécile Denise Acosta Reynaud went to Kalasalingam University to visit our daughter. On March 25, we had finished the organization of her holidays, which would take place from April 19 to the end of May: Our daughter would be with Cécile the first 10 days, then 20 days with me, and again with Cécile the last 10 days. The visit took place quite normally, without any remarkable incident, and she left on April 9, telling she would be back on April 20 to pick up our daughter.
Vacaciones/Holidays Exámenes escolares/School Exams
Disappearance
On Friday, April 13, towards 19:00, a French man knocked at the door of our apartment. He introduced himself as Antoine Vantelon, the couple of Cécile. He was looking for her, since he had not been able to communicate with her for several days. He said to believe that something bad had happened to Cécile, and urged me to go to the police station to put a missing person complaint. I actually believed that she was only avoiding him, but thought that the best was to put the complaint, just in case. We went to Krishnankovil Police Station but they did not take the complaint; on Saturday morning we went to Srivilliputtur Police Station along with Prof. Karuppasamy from Kalasalingam University, but there we were told that the complaint should be put at Krishnankovil Police Station. Finally we managed to put the complaint on Sunday, although Antoine left before that, telling he was going to look for her along the way she should have followed from my home to hers.
After taking the missing person complaint, the police asked me to have some flyers made with her photograph. The University helped me to arrange that.
Arrest
On April 16, 2012, at 22:30, the police arrived at the building I lived in, and ordered me to go with them to Madurai City, along with my five-years-old daughter and two of my neighbors, allegedly to identify the corpse of Cécile Denise Acosta Reynaud.
In Madurai I suffered physical torture in the hands of the police for six hours: I was repeatedly hit in temples and ears, as a result of which my hearing capability is permanently impaired; I was manacled to a bench with my arms behind my back, and my legs were forcefully stretched open, causing a torn muscle which took nine months to heal; my fingers were bent to the sides, producing a pain which lasted for six months and left some of my fingers permanently bent. They were trying to force me to sign a “confession” stating that I had killed the mother of my daughter. When the police personnel leading the “interrogation” commented regarding how well they had been treating my daughter, who at that time was sleeping in a nearby room, I immediately gave up and offered to sign whatever they wanted as long as the integrity of my daughter was fully respected. By then, it was already dawn. All this happened in a place known as “SP building”.
We were then taken to Thirunagar Police Station. In the early morning, another chief of police (the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Thiruparankundiram, as I later came to know), who told me to “confess”. When I stated that I did not know anything, he threatened me with further torture, and forced me to write a “confession” different from the one I had previously signed. In the first one, I kill Cécile in Madurai, while in the second one I do it in my apartment in Kalasalingam University and later take the corpse to Madurai. It is worth mentioning that my alleged confession actually submitted to court by the police is none of those, but a third one which does not even have my signature, and which I read for the first time when the file of the case was given to me on March 2013.
After writing such “confession”, they made me board a van, so suddenly that I was not even able to say goodbye to my daughter, and I was taken to the Commissioner of the Southern districts of Tamil Nadu, the highest police authority in that area of the state. Later I was taken again to the “SP building”, where I waited for some hours till I was shown to several journalists, and then I was brought back to the police station where we had been taken in the morning, and where my daughter had spent the whole day. By then, it was already dark.
Late at night we were taken to our apartment in Kalasalingam University, where I was allowed to pack some things for my daughter, who was going to be taken to a government home, and for myself, who would be in jail. We went back to Thirunagar Police Station and we were allowed to sleep on the floor for some hours.
Next morning our daughter was taken to the government home. I was brought to the presence of a magistrate who ordered my imprisonment, and then I was allowed to visit my daughter one last time. Then I was taken to Madurai Jail, but was not admitted because, as a foreigner, I could only be in a jail in the state’s capital. I was brought back to the police station, where I met somebody sent by the Embassy of Mexico and India, who later distorted and omitted information regarding such visit. After dusk some police personnel and I started the way towards Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where I was admitted in jail in the early hours of Thursday, April 19, 2012.
Of course, I was never informed regarding my rights, and I was not offered the assistance of a lawyer.