<p>Five more policemen were arrested in a widening investigation into the deaths of a father and his son while in police custody in southern India, an officer said on Thursday, in a case that has put policing in the country under a spotlight.</p>.<p>J Jayaraj, 59, and Bennicks Immanuel, 31, were detained for allegedly violating coronavirus lockdown rules in the town of Sathankulam last month and subjected to a brutal thrashing that resulted in rectal bleeding and eventual death, according to a letter to government officials written by Jayaraj's wife J Selvaran.</p>.<p>Police Inspector General K Shankar said the five policemen arrested on Wednesday were accused of holding the two men down in a police station in Tamil Nadu state while others beat them.</p>.<p>"They have been held for abetment," Shankar said.</p>.<p>Five other policemen are already in custody and face charges of murder in a case that people on social media have compared with the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of police in the United States.</p>.<p>India's federal police will soon take over the investigation from the state police.</p>.<p>India's National Human Rights Commission says there are nearly 15 cases of custodial violence and torture reported each day from the country and that "it has become almost routine."</p>.<p>The father-son duo were accused of keeping their mobile phone shop open despite the lockdown, an offence that at worst would have got them three months in prison, legal experts said.</p>
<p>Five more policemen were arrested in a widening investigation into the deaths of a father and his son while in police custody in southern India, an officer said on Thursday, in a case that has put policing in the country under a spotlight.</p>.<p>J Jayaraj, 59, and Bennicks Immanuel, 31, were detained for allegedly violating coronavirus lockdown rules in the town of Sathankulam last month and subjected to a brutal thrashing that resulted in rectal bleeding and eventual death, according to a letter to government officials written by Jayaraj's wife J Selvaran.</p>.<p>Police Inspector General K Shankar said the five policemen arrested on Wednesday were accused of holding the two men down in a police station in Tamil Nadu state while others beat them.</p>.<p>"They have been held for abetment," Shankar said.</p>.<p>Five other policemen are already in custody and face charges of murder in a case that people on social media have compared with the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of police in the United States.</p>.<p>India's federal police will soon take over the investigation from the state police.</p>.<p>India's National Human Rights Commission says there are nearly 15 cases of custodial violence and torture reported each day from the country and that "it has become almost routine."</p>.<p>The father-son duo were accused of keeping their mobile phone shop open despite the lockdown, an offence that at worst would have got them three months in prison, legal experts said.</p>