Chennai: Six police officers, including main accused sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh, have been arrested for the custodial deaths of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu. Twelve special teams formed under the Inspector General and Superintendent of Police of CB-CID are investigating all angles in the case. Search and arrest parties have fanned out to arrest the remaining accused. Finally the investigating team arrested Sathankulam police inspector Sridhar after he played hide-and-seek with CB-CID sleuths for days in the sensational case of custodial torture and murder of a father-son duo in this southern district in Tamil Nadu.
The arrested police men have been booked in connection with the killings of the duo, with the section of two FIRs altered to include Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The special investigating agency has added murder charges against SIs Raghu Ganesh and Balakrishnan, and as many constables and members of Friends of Police (volunteers) of the Sathankulam police station, said sources in the CB-CID.
The arrest came shortly after Tamil Nadu Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam assured that the government would ensure the "highest punishment" to those responsible for the deaths of P Jeyaraj and his son J Bennix. The arrests led to celebrations in Thoothukudi, with locals bursting firecrackers.
Jayaraj, 60, and Bennix, 31, were arrested by the Thoothukudi police on June 19 for keeping their mobile store open after permitted hours. Relatives claim that Jayaraj, who was in the store, was picked up by police and verbally abused and assaulted. His son, Bennix​, had later gone to the police station to plead with the police to release his father.
The duo was allegedly thrashed and a case was filed against them under IPC Sections 188, 383 and 506(II). They were later taken to the Kovilpatti sub-jail. Both died at a hospital in Kovilpatti on June 23 hours apart, with relatives alleging they were severely thrashed at Sathankulam police station.
The Judicial Magistrate probing the custodial killings, in his report, had said there is evidence of assault on the father-son duo. The magistrate had said that according to eyewitnesses, both the father and the son were assaulted by police officers throughout the night of June 19, resulting in blood marks on canes and the table on which the victims were laid and beaten.
The Madras High Court said there is enough evidence of assault on the bodies of Jayaraj and Bennix, adding that prima facie evidence can lead to registration of murder case against the police officers. The incident has triggered a furore in the state, leading to the suspension of four policemen, including two sub-inspectors. The High Court had taken up the case and ordered a video recording of the post-mortem after the relatives of the two men moved the court.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had announced Rs 10,00,000 each to the family of the deceased and a government job to one person from the family, based on their qualification. The murder charges capped dramatic developments both in the court and outside where a woman head constable witness to the happenings told a magisterial probe that the two traders were thrashed an entire night by the other police personnel at Sathankulam station where they were detained.
