TIRUNELVELI
Seeking copy of the post-mortem reports of trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks of Sattankulam, who died in hospital following alleged custodial torture in the Sattankulam police station on June 19 last, family of the deceased submitted a petition to Dean of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital on Wednesday.
“After being refused to give the post-mortem reports by the Department of Forensic Medicine of Tirunelveli Medical College, I have submitted this petition to Dean M. Ravichandran, who has promised to take appropriate action on my plea,” said J. Persis, eldest daughter of Jayaraj.
After being taken to the Sattankulam police station on the night June 19 last by Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh and a team of policemen, Jayaraj was allegedly beaten up. When Benicks who came to the police station on getting information about the detention of his father, he was also locked up and allegedly subjected to custodial torture.
On being remanded by a court in Sattankulam, the father and the son were lodged in the Kovilpatti sub-jail from where they were admitted to the Kovilpatti Government Hospital where they died. Subsequently, the post-mortem of the bodies of Jayaraj and Benicks was conducted at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital on June 24 by a team of doctors and the autopsy was videographed as directed by the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court.
Following nationwide uproar over the gruesome incident in police custody, the State government handed over the case to CB-CID that arrested ten policemen of Sattankulam police station, including Inspector Sridhar, SIs Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh and eight other policemen upon registration of murder case against the accused. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the CBI, which is conducting the case in a court in Madurai.
The post-mortem reports were submitted to the court in sealed covers while the family was not given the copy of the reports as being done usually upon request.
As trial in the case has begun, the family of the deceased, which is in need of the post-mortem report for strengthening its case against the policemen accused in this case, is trying to get a copy of the documents that may have details on the the nature of injuries the father and the son suffered while in custody.
