‘Good news’ was pouring in for the people of Sathankulam as Thursday dawned. Twelve hours after sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh was arrested over the custodial deaths of a man and his son in the town, the CBCID on Thursday morning arrested three more policemen—inspector Sridhar, sub-inspector Balakrishnan and constable Murugan, who was the complainant in the case. All four policemen, including Raghu Ganesh, who was arrested on Wednesday night, have been remanded and taken for inquiry. The arrests led to celebrations in the area, with people bursting crackers.
The CBCID on Wednesday arrested sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh, and four others were booked on murder charges in connection with the deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix. The father-son duo was brutally tortured in custody and died as a result. The FIRs filed in the case were altered to murder charges against Raghu Ganesh and Balakrishnan, along with two constables and two members of the friends of police. One constable and two members of the friends of police are yet to be arrested.
Both sub inspectors Raghu Ganesh and Balakrishnan were charged under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code. “We have changed the charges to include murder charges. We will take action after inquiry. Preliminary investigation has helped us to narrow down to four people. The special teams are also at work,” says IG Shankar.
On Wednesday, following an order by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, the CBCID took charge of the investigation in the Thoothukudi case. The CBCID subsequently formed 12 teams for a detailed investigation in the case involving the policemen in the Sathankulam police station, Kovilpatti sub-jail and the mobile shop run by Jayaraj and Bennix. The case is to come up for hearing at the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday. Sources say the police and the CBCID acted swiftly, as the court had already pulled up the government and the police department for inaction and transferred the case to the CBCID.
Jayaraj (58) and his 31-year-old son were arrested by the Sathankulam police for violating the lockdown norms on June 18 and were tortured brutally inside the police station and died at Kovilpatti hospital on June 23. The family and relatives of Jayaraj and Bennix went on a protest, triggering nationwide furore in the case.
