MADURAI: Jeyaraj and Beniks, the father-son duo who died allegedly owing to custodial torture at the hands of Sathankulam police in Thoothukudi, suffered 13 and 17 external injuries respectively on their bodies, according to their post-mortem examination report.
Justice V Bharathidasan of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court observed the same while hearing the bail petitions filed by three of the ten police personnel arrested in connection with the incident. Almost all were blunt injuries, complications arising out of which seemed to have resulted in their deaths, the judge orally noted.
CBI investigating officer V K Shukla, who was reportedly present before the court, informed the judge that contrary to the claims in the petitions, the three petitioners were directly involved in the incident. Murugan lodged a false complaint against the father-son duo and Muthuraj signed the same.
According to eye-witnesses, they both assaulted the two. Thomas Francis stood sentry by door of the station so that nobody entered and witnessed the incident. He also held Beniks’ hands when the latter was being beaten up and later participated in the beating, the officer told the court. He added that the agency might register a separate case over the false complaint filed against the deceased, when the judge posed a question in this regard.
He further told the court that around 35 witnesses have been examined so far and added that releasing the petitioners on bail would lead to the tampering of evidence and manipulation of witnesses. The counsel appearing for Jeyaraj’s wife Selvarani, who had filed an intervening application, also expressed similar apprehension.
After considering the submissions, the judge noted that the investigation is yet to be completed and held that the petitioners cannot be granted bail at this stage. Following the same, the petitions were withdrawn by the counsel concerned.
In the petitions, Murugan alleged that Inspector Sridhar and SI Balakrishnan had forced him to put his signature on a complaint against the deceased. Except signing the complaint, he did not do anything against the deceased, he claimed.
Francis speaks
Murugan said that except signing the complaint, he didn’t do anything. Francis claimed that he worked only as a computer operator and that he did not assault the deceased traders