MADURAI: The CBI has established that traders P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks were subjected to brutal torture by police at the Sathankulam station between 7.45pm on June 19 and 3am on June 20. Citing the expert opinion received from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi, the agency said in its final report that the blood stains found on the wooden lathis used by the policemen and on the walls of the police station were confirmed to be those of the two victims. DNA profile generated from the exhibits lifted from the station were consistent with that generated from the bloodstained clothes of the duo.
The CBI said the materials proved that the policemen had deliberately inflicted injuries on them knowing well that they were sufficient to cause their death. The findings of Kovilpatti judicial magistrate (JM) after his inquest and the post-mortem report confirmed that both of them died due to complications from blunt injuries. According to the sequence of events reconstructed by the CBI, after Jeyaraj was detained at the police station, son Beniks went there asking for the reason for his detention. As a scuffle ensued between him and policemen, inspector S Sridhar asked other policemen to teach Beniks a lesson on “how to behave with police”. The two of them were subjected to several rounds of torture and their clothes were removed to add brutality to their torture.
Father-son had not violated lockdown norms: CBI report
Both Jeyaraj and Beniks were made to bow down on a wooden table in their underwear and their hands and legs were held down by the policemen. They were subjected to several rounds of beatings using wooden lathi on their buttocks, back and other parts of their body.
Investigation also revealed that during the torture, Beniks was askedtoclean thebloodthat oozed from their wounds and blood stains on the floor of the police station with his own vest. This apart, Sridhar also asked the sweeper to clean the floor of the main hall and other places at the police station the next morning to destroy the evidence.
On June 20, when they were taken to the Sathankulam government hospital, medical officer Dr Vinila had declared that they were “fit for remand” though she found several injuries on their body. Blood-stained clothes were changed twice before taking them to the hospital and their clothes changed at the hospital before taking them for remand. All these clothes were dumped in the hospital dustbin.
It was also revealed that Jeyaraj and Beniks had not violated the lockdown norms and there was no altercation between them and the police officers at Kamarajar Salai at Sathankulam on June 19. Investigation revealed that a false case was registered against them.
Since special sub-inspector Paldurai has passed away, the CBI had filed the final report against nine suspended policemen – inspector Sridhar, SIs Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, head constables S Murugan and A Samadurai, constables M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Vailmuthu before the Madurai chief judicial magistrate court on September 25.
Apart from its findings, the CBI also mentioned the findings of Kovilpatti judicial magistrate (JM) after his inquest which revealed that the father son duo died due to torture. The JM in his report had stated that the duo was illegally arrested and assaulted the entire night at the police station. He also stated that 18 injuries were found on the bodies of the deceased during the inquest. Taking into account the opinion of the doctors who performed postmortem and statements of witnesses, the JM held the duo died due to injuries inflicted by police.