“The judiciary, which is the last hope for us like God, will certainly render justice to the gruesome killing of our father and our brother by the police at the earliest and, hence, we, with bleeding heart, accept their bodies to perform the last rites,” said J. Persis, daughter of trader P. Jayaraj of Sattankulam, while receiving the bodies on Thursday after the post-mortem.

Before the post-mortem started at 8.20 p.m. on Wednesday, Kovilpatti Judicial Magistrate I M.S. Bharathidasan, who is probing the death under judicial custody, asked the relatives of the deceased — trader P. Jayaraj of Sattankulam and his son J. Benicks, who died in judicial custody — to identify and take a look at the bodies for torture injuries, if any.

“No one on earth should undergo such torture underwent by our father and our brother... The torture underwent by them in police custody at Sattankulam police station and even as they were taken to Kovilpatti sub-jail cannot be narrated in words... Their private parts, buttocks, back and thighs were full of blows of lathi marks... The police had plucked the hair on the chest of my brother... They have been tortured and murdered by the police,” she said.

Since the family of Jayaraj and his relatives demanded registration of murder case against Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, they refused to accept the body after the post-mortem was over by 11.30 p.m. and left the spot.

When they returned to the mortuary of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital after a lot of persuasion, the Judicial Magistrate, Mr. Bharathidasan, consoled them and instilled confidence in them that justice would prevail as the High Court was closely monitoring the case.

“Though the murder of our father and our brother is unbearable and agonising for us, we receive their bodies as we firmly believe that the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, which is closely monitoring the progress of the judicial probe, will render justice to this gruesome killing orchestrated by the police,” said Ms. Persis, while receiving their body here at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday.

A troubled Sattankulam received the bodies and residents paid their last respects in the dusk before the last rites.