Trial in father-son duo custodial death to commence on November 11

The trial in the custodial deaths of a father and his son in Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district will commence in a local court on November 11, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court was told on Tuesday.

Assistant Solicitor General L Victoria Gowri told the court that the trial will commence on November 11 as the CBI has filed its report with regard to the case. She informed the court while it was hearing the bail petitions of suspended policemen S Murugan and Raghu Ganesh. The court refused them bail.

P Jeyaraj (61), and his 31-year-old son Emmanuel Bennix were arrested on June 19 by Sathankulam police and they died within a few hours of each other a few days later, succumbing to injuries sustained in the police custody. The Madurai Bench took suo motu cognisance of the case and asked the CB-CID to begin investigations till the time the CBI took over.

The CBI had last week concluded that the father-son duo was arrested "illegally" and was tortured during the police custody.

Busting "every lie" of the police version, the CBI investigation concluded that Jeyaraj and Bennix were innocent having committed no crime but were arrested due to a "criminal conspiracy" hatched by the policemen, and beaten up and tortured for hours by making them "bow down" on a wooden table with just underwear on them.

The father-son duo was tortured inside the police station by nine policemen, who took turns to beat them up, at the instigation of inspector Sridhar, who "prodded the staff" to start "fresh rounds of beating" when there was a lull, the charge sheet said.

Besides Sridhar, the charge sheet blamed sub-inspectors K Balakrishnan, P Raghuganesh, head constables S Murugan, A Samadurai, and police constables M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis, and S Veilumuthu for the crime.