The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) concluded the death of Christian father and son in Sathankulam, Thoothukudi as a result of several rounds of brutal torture in police custody.
In the charge sheet submitted by the agency, it recorded the horror that took place in Sathankulam police station from 7:30 pm on June 19 to 3:00 am the next day.
PÂ Jeyaraj, 58, and his son Emmanuel Bennix, 31, were arrested on June 19 for violating COVID-19 rules. But the investigation agency confirmed that the duo's arrest was "illegal."
They were arrested due to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the police and physically tortured for hours. The two were made to bow down on a wooden table, while the policemen took turns to beat and torture the duo for hours.
"Both (Jeyaraj and Bennix), turn by turn, were made to bow down on a wooden table in underwear only, their hands and legs were caught hold by accused police officials, so that they were not able to defend themselves...Though Jeyaraj begged that given his high BP and diabetic condition, he would not be able to sustain such grievous injuries, still no one paid any heed and the accused police officials continued with several rounds of brutal torture with intervals in between 7.45 pm on 19.06.2020 to 3 am on 20.06.2020," the CBI charge sheet detailed.
Following the torture, the police officials made Bennix clean the blood scattered on the walls and the floor to eliminate any trace of evidence. The CBI, however, recovered blood samples from the wooden baton, lockup and toilet that matched the two victims.
While Bennix died on June 22, his father died a few hours later on June 23 due to severe injuries.
The charge sheet submitted by the CBI accused nine policemen of the crime: Inspector Sridhar, who instigated the beating, sub-inspectors K Balakrishnan, P Raghuganesh, head constables S Murugan, A Samadurai, and police constables M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis, and S Veilumuthu.
Dr. N Vinila, Medical Officer at the Sathankulam Government Hospital, was also in CBI's loop for declaring the father-son duo "fit for remand" despite their injuries.
"The entire locality, irrespective of religion, caste and creed, were waiting to hear the truth from the CBI, the highest agency in our country, who did a commendable job in bringing the facts about the custodial deaths of two Christians," Bishop Stephen Antony Pillai of Tuticorin told UCA News.
"There is no doubt about the pressure on the CBI to bring the truth to the world because some even tried to give political color to it and some even tried to cash in on the opportunities, but finally the result was a clear indication that the father and son were tortured in custody, resulting in their deaths.
"We thank the CBI and administrations who were involved in this very sensitive case but we also ask respective governments to look at the matter of the poor and downtrodden who faced the same fate but could not fight their case due to poor financial or political support from their societies," the bishop said.
