Across the globe, police brutality is currently one of the most prevalent issues, but in India, it seems like police brutality is a typical affair. The death of Father-son duo allegedly in police custody in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district has caused turmoil in the state.
According to media reports, the duo was brutally sexually assaulted in police custody.
59-year-old P Jayaraj and his 31-year-old son J Fenix were faced with this fate merely because they opened their shops during the lockdown. The police picked them up on 19 June for questioning but allegedly they were thrashed in custody, leading to their deaths.
While Fenix fell ill and died at the Kovilpatti General Hospital on June 22, his father died on the morning of June 23.
The Federal, a Chennai-based news site quoted eyewitness alleging the duo was sodomized in the police custody.
Over the accounts of friends and families, the Federal reported that when the father-son duo was released from jail, they were found profusely bleeding from their rectum.
The Federal quoted a friend of Fenix: “Between 7 am and 12 pm on June 20, the father and son had changed at least seven lungies (waistcloth) each as they had become wet due to blood oozing from their rectums,”.
The friend also said that the father-son duo came out of prison in a disheveled state with torn and bloodied clothes.
They were taken to a hospital after being released from prison where the doctor allegedly declared the duo fit on the insistence of the local inspector.
Fenix and his father were then taken to the judicial magistrate but reportedly could not tell the truth of their ordeal due to repeated threats from the police.
Friends of Fenix, who were present in the police station when the police rounded them up, told the news outlet that for three hours, they heard only the screams and cries of Jayaraj and Fenix.
“Throughout the night, the duo cried for help, and people residing about 500 meters away from the station could hear that,” the eyewitness reportedly said.
The city of Tuticorin is enraged due to the custodial deaths of the father and son. To protest the alleged custodial death of the two traders in Sathankulam police station, shops across in the district remained closed on Wednesday
Madras High Court has ordered a probe and has directed the police to submit a report on July 26 over the death of the duo.
Tuticorin Collector Sandeep Nanduri said the duo had been earlier arrested and lodged in the Kovilpatti sub-jail.
“There were complaints that they were killed in police assault..a judicial probe has been ordered,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, assured legal actions as per the orders of Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and action based on the magisterial probe into the custodial death of the father-son duo in the Tuticorin district.
He also assured a compensation of 10 Lakh each along with government job for the family of the victims while adding that two policemen alleged to be responsible for the deaths had been suspended and the inspector of Sathankulam been kept under compulsory waiting.
Meanwhile, the family of the deceased demanded that a murder case be registered against two sub-inspectors, since transferred, alleging they were responsible for the death of their father and brother.
The relatives set that until their demands are not met, they will not accept the bodies even as the postmortem was held at the Tirunelveli Government Hospital.
Several political parties including DMK, have also demanded action against those responsible for the duo’s death.
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