TN custodial deaths: CBI details 6-hrs of torture
The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) charge sheet in the alleged custodial deaths of P Jeyaraj and J Bennicks details the inhumane sixhour torture of the father and son allegedly by nine police officers at Sathankulam police station in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.
The charge sheet, filed on September 25 against the nine police officers, said that after Jeyaraj, 59, was picked up by the police around 7:30 pm on June 19 for allegedly violating the Covid-19induced-lockdown rules, his son Bennicks, 31, was asked to come to the police station to share further information. When Bennicks saw his father was being roughed up at the police station, an altercation and a scuffle ensued between him and sub-inspector (S-I) Balakrishnan, following which the police personnel “decided to teach him a lesson on how to behave with the police”, according to the CBI charge sheet, a copy of which HT has seen. Bennicks, too, was taken into custody and beaten even “more severely”, it said. The CBI noted: Both Jeyaraj and Bennicks, turn by turn, were made to bow down on a wooden table in their undergarments,
Villagers stage a protest in solidarity with custodial death victims, at Sathankulam in Tuticorin district on June 28, 2020
their hands and legs were caught hold by the accused police officials so that they were not able to defend themselves.”
While being held in that position, “they were subjected to severe beatings with lathis on buttocks, back and other parts of the body,” the charge sheet said.
Jeyaraj cited his ill health— high blood pressure and diabetes—and begged to be spared of the beating, but his entreaties fell on deaf ears, the charge sheet said. The accused police personnel persisted with several rounds of brutal torture between 7:45
pm on June 19 until 3:00 am on June 20, the charge sheet added.
A CBI probe has concluded that there was no violation of lockdown by the two. A government hospital in Sathankulam had declared Jeyaraj and Bennicks “fit for remand” in police custody, despite being aware of the nature of their injuries.
The CBI has concluded that Jeyaraj and Bennicks were tortured by the police officers brutally, despite knowing that they would die of grievous injuries.
All nine accused police officers are in jail.