Jayaraj-Benniks custodial deaths | Father, son were tortured for 7 hours, made to clean blood, says CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its chargesheet filed before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court in relation to the custodial deaths of a father and son in Tamil Nadu in June, said that the two were tortured by the police for more than seven hours.

According to an NDTV's report, the chargesheet also stated that Jayaraj and his son Benniks were beaten so badly that blood was splattered on the walls of the police station, forensic evidence revealed. Benniks was even forced by the policemen to clean the blood on the floor of the police station using his vest.

The investigation agency also revealed that the two were made to suffer “several rounds of brutal torture, with intervals, in between 7:45 pm and 3 am.”

"CBI investigation revealed that the father-son duo was arrested in the evening of June 19 and allegedly tortured at the Sathankulam Police Station by the accused in the evening as well as in the intervening night, consequent to which both of them succumbed to the injuries and died in the intervening night of June 22 and 23," the CBI had said earlier, reported ANI.

The CBI had on September 25 filed a chargesheet against nine police officials in a Madurai court in connection with the custodial death of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi.

According to the CBI, the accused include then Station House Officer S Sridhar, sub-inspectors K Balakrishnan, and P Raghuganesh, then head constables S Murugan and A Samadurai, and then constables M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Veilumuthu.

Detailing the methods of torture, the chargesheet read: “Process of brutal torture of the deceased Bennicks and his father continued for hours together within the closed premises of the Sathankulam police station. All through this, accused inspector S Sridhar had been repeatedly instigating the accused police officers to beat Jeyaraj and Bennicks even more severely."

The chargesheet said that whenever there was a lull, the accused inspector used to prod the staff by asking reasons for the silence and thereby instigating them to start fresh rounds of beating. "Not only this, their (deceased) clothes were removed to add to the brutality of torture," it added.

The duo, arrested for 'violating' lockdown norms over business hours of their cellphone shop, died at a hospital in Kovilpatti on June 23 while in judicial custody with relatives alleging they were tortured at the Sathankulam police station.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had earlier taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and asked the CBI to submit a report before it on the matter.

The agency had registered two cases on July 7 in connection with the alleged custodial death of a father-son duo identified as P Jeyaraj and J Benniks in Kovilpatti on the request of the Tamil Nadu government and further notification from the central government.

With inputs from ANI