THOOOTUKUDI/MADURAI: The CB-CID has arrested four policemen in connection with the deaths of Sathankulam traders P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks while in custody last week, officials involved in the investigation said. While suspended inspector Srithar and sub-inspector Balakrishnan were arrested early Thursday morning, SI Raghu Ganesh and head constable Murugan were arrested late Wednesday night. Meanwhile, constable Muthuraj has been detained for questioning.
Srithar was in charge of the Sathankulam police station at the time of the incident.
The CB-CID, which took over the investigation on Wednesday also altered the FIR registered in the case to Section 302 of the IPC (murder), CB-CID inspector general K Shankar said in a media briefing late Wednesday night.
Ganesh was produced before Thoothukudi Chief Judicial Magistrate S Hema in the early hours of Thursday after doctors at the Thoothukudi Government Hospital certified him fit. The CJM remanded him to the Perurani district jail till July 16.
Advocate Manimaran, Beniks' friend, who was witness to the alleged assault of the victims, reacted to news of the arrests stating that the victims would "rest in peace only after all the police officers and others involved in the deaths are arrested".
The arrests come just a day after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the CB-CID to begin an investigation into the deaths. The State government had transferred the case to the CBI but the HC feared that evidence might be lost or tampered with by the time the central agency took on the probe. The CB-CID was, therefore, ordered to begin its probe in the interim. The case is scheduled to come up for hearing before the Madurai Bench on Thursday.
Shankar had arrived in Thoothukudi on Wednesday and, with his team, visited the mobile accessories shop owned by Beniks at Sathankulam. The sleuths also questioned a trader in the adjacent shop. Then the team visited the house of the victims and conducted a preliminary inquiry with Jeyaraj’s three daughters and their husbands, and Jeyaraj’s widow Selvarani.
At that time, Shankar told reporters that the investigation had just begun and the decision to invoke murder charges would be taken based on the progress of the investigation. Twelve special teams had been formed to probe the case, and they had started their investigation, he had said.
Shankar later conducted inquiries at the Sathankulam police station, where the victims were held and allegedly thrashed through the night of June 19. Friends and eyewitnesses who met the duo the next day when they were produced before a magistrate said they were both grievously injured and bleeding profusely. Father and son were remanded at Kovilpatti sub-jail on June 20. Beniks died shortly after being brought to Kovilpatti Government Hospital on the night of June 22 while Jeyaraj died at the hospital the next morning.
(The story has been updated with the latest information)