"You should remain in jail for some time," the Supreme Court on Tuesday told a Tamil Nadu police officer, while refusing to list early his bail plea in the custodial death of father-son duo Jayaraj-Bennix.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai noted this was a case where a father and his son were beaten black and blue to death in custody for merely violating Covid lockdown.
"This is a very bad case. This is a case where you should be in jail for some time," the bench told senior advocate Anjana Prakash as she insisted for an urgent listing of bail plea of P Raghu Ganesh, who was the sub-inspector of the Sathankulam police station, where Jayaraj and Bennix were subjected to custodial torture in June 2020.
The bench, which issued notice to the CBI on the plea, declined to grant an urgent listing of the petition during summer vacation.
The counsel contended her client was not present at the police station at the time of the incident.
She also submitted that one of the accused died due to Covid while in custody. She urged the court to list the matter during the vacation.
The court noted the records showed that there was an eyewitness for Raghu Ganesh's involvement in the crime.
Ganesh approached the top court challenging the Madras High Court order of March 22, which dismissed his bail application.
On June 19, last year, Jayaraj and Bennix were taken into custody on the allegation that they had kept their mobile phone shop open beyond the permissible hours during the lockdown.
The Tamil Nadu government handed over the investigation to the CBI. The CBI filed a chargesheet against nine police personnel in the Sathankulam custodial death case of Jayaraj and Bennix at Tuticorin district.