The CBI, probing Sathankulam custodial deaths of father-son duo, on Tuesday submitted that they died due to alleged police brutality as the corpse of J Bennix (31) bore 13 injury marks and that of P Jayraj (58) had 17 injury marks.
Madurai:
The CBI furnished these details to the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court based on post mortem reports of Bennix and Jayaraj, while opposing bail pleas of jailed head constable Murugan and constables –Thomas Francis and Muthuraj that came up for hearing before Justice V Bharathidasan. These three jailed cops were among 10 arrested by the CB-CID in connection with the custodial deaths after being charged with murder and attempt to destroy evidence.
The Justice said the bail pleas could be taken into consideration after the CBI submitted its charge sheet before the court and could not grant bail now. The counsel on behalf of the petitioners then decided to withdraw the petitions and the Justice dismissed the petitions as withdrawn.
Further it was informed that the Crime Branch CID, which earlier began its probe as per the directive of the High Court, examined around 60 witnesses and the CBI has examined 35 witnesses.
Bennix died due to excessive bleeding on the night of June 22 after he was remanded in Kovilpatti sub jail. In the subsequent morning of June 23, his father succumbed to injuries. The father-son duo, who were traders, were detained by the Sathankulam police in Thoothukudi district on June 19 for keeping their mobile phone shop open beyond restricted time period during COVID-19 lockdown.