You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind
— Mahatma Gandhi
These words could not be ringing at a more appropriate time amid the outrage over one of the most brutal alleged custody deaths in Sathankulam, a quaint town in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district. To unravel what triggered the chain of events, here is a recap. June 18: A police patrol team passes by the shop of a 63-year-old timber merchant, P Jeyaraj. The merchant fleetingly comments about the police insisting that shopowners down shutters as per lockdown rules. An auto driver informs the police about this.
June 19: A police team takes Jeyaraj for “inquiry”. His 31-year-old son, J Benicks, who has a mobile shop nearby, goes to the police station. Seeing his father being physically harassed, Benicks tries to protect him. This was the beginning of a tumultuous turn of events. A lockdown violation may probably have landed Jeyaraj, if found guilty, three months in prison. But what happened was a spine-chilling act of brutality. Jeyaraj and Benicks were allegedly beaten up after being stripped naked, and tortured for hours. Thirteen officers were at the station during the incident, including volunteers, also called Friends of Police. Benicks’ friends heard wails of the duo as they waited outside the police station.
On June 20, Jeyaraj’s family saw the bleeding father and son being taken to a government hospital. The seat of the vehicle, in which they were taken, was soaked in blood. After being treated at the hospital, the magistrate inked their remand to Kovilpatti sub-jail by “waving his hand from the first floor of the building”. The family was in the dark till the evening of June 22, when they were both shifted to Koilpatti GH due to continuous bleeding and severe injuries. Benicks died late that night, and Jeyaraj, a few hours before daybreak. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance and soon the case was transferred to CB-CID and later to CBI.
This was almost a month after George Floyd was pleading that he couldn’t breathe and later suffocated to death on May 25 in Minneapolis, leading to a phenomenal outrage in the US. The hashtagged phrase, “blacklivesmatter” became a global anthem, with millions reorienting the racial discourse. In Thoothukudi, the duo’s death did not initially gain much traction. But the fresh-from-Floyd social media plunged into yet another viral hashtagged phrase, “justiceforjayarajandfenix” (Benicks spelt as Fenix). Soon it was on prime time television and leaders sat up and took notice. The current pandemic did prolong the journey from hashtag to headlines.
Though there is no indication of a caste angle, there is a faint stink of traditional enmity of two caste groups, Nadars and Konars (or Yadavs). For the record, the two traders were Nadars.
Historically, the Tamil Nadu police have been known for highhandedness. Post-Sathankulam, the Tiruchy wing of the Tamil Nadu police was the first to send 80 officers to a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course. One hopes it doesn’t end up in tokenism. According to Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, “The healthy man does not torture others. Generally, it is the tortured who, turn into torturers.” One needs to understand the psychological factors that have made aggression a second nature of many a policeman. Unrealistic pressures and long work hours may have led to their frustration.
The police-population ratio is 1:632 in Tamil Nadu, which is better than the nationwide average of 1:724. Yet, the state tops the list in the South with 76 custodial deaths, according to a report in 2018. The local political muscle and caste dynamics have added to this psychological load. The series of lockdowns and subsequent vesting of power to police curfew violators added weight to their muscle.
It is time the powers of the police and the rights of the people are redrawn. June 26 was observed as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. One hopes Sathankulam propels a movement to stop normalising any form of custody violence.
Subhashini Dinesh
Deputy Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu subhashini@newindianexpress.com
After all, #alllivesmatter.