Police used disparaging remarks: JM probing father, son custodial deaths

In a serious development, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against two police officers and a constable from Thoothukudi district for preventing a Judicial Magistrate appointed by it from conducting an inquiry into the alleged custodial deaths of a father and his son.

The contempt proceedings came after the Kovilpatti Judicial Magistrate (JM), M S Bharathidasan, submitted a report to the high court bench narrating the events at the Sathankulam Police station, where the duo was allegedly tortured, on Sunday evening when he went to conduct the inquiry.

In the report, the JM said a police constable, Maharajan, made a “very disparaging remark” against him in the presence of D Kumar, Additional Superintendent of Police, and C Prathapan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, even as policemen at the station recorded videos of the proceedings.

“You cannot pluck anything,” the constable told the Judicial Magistrate, according to the suo-moto contempt petition, a copy of which was accessed by DH. Taking a serious view of the report by the JM, the division bench of P N Prakash and B Pugalendhi ordered the aforementioned policemen to appear before it at 10.30 am on Tuesday (June 30).

P Jeyaraj and his son Emmanuel Bennix (31), were taken into custody by the police in Sathankulam town on June 19 following an argument over keeping their shops open beyond 9 pm. The duo are alleged to have been tortured by police during custody and was shifted to Kovilpatti sub-jail on June 21. However, the son died on June 22 and the father on June 23 due to injuries sustained during the police custody.

The bench also observed that a “free and fair investigation and inquiry” was “very difficult” unless the state government intervenes and transfers the ASP, DSP, and other policemen in the Sathankulam police station.

Noting that the Judicial Magistrate sent the report to the bench via e-mail on Monday afternoon, the division bench observed that “a reading of it clearly shows that the district police administration are doing everything within their command to prevent the learned Magistrate from proceeding with the enquiry.”

While taking cognizance of criminal contempt on “our own motion”, the division bench also asked the Range Deputy Inspector General of Police and the Thoothukudi district Superintendent of Police to accompany the Additional Advocate General (AAG) K Chellapandian during the hearing on Tuesday.

Monday’s development of the JM complaining to the Madurai Bench has sent shockwaves across the state. People on social media wondered how the common man can live peacefully when judges are threatened by policemen in the state.

The court initiated the contempt proceedings hours after it observing that it cannot have a say in the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to transfer the case to the CBI and asked the Thoothukudi collector to direct revenue officials to take control of the Sathankulam Police Station to collect relevant documents.

The Madurai Bench, which has taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and appointed a three-member team to conduct the post-mortem of the duo had directed the Kovilpatti JM to conduct the inquest proceedings.

Earlier, as Additional Advocate General (AAG) K Chellapandian sought permission from the court to transfer the case to CBI, the judges said they have no say in the issue as it was a policy decision by the government.

While expressing displeasure at the behaviour of the Sathankulam police, the judges asked Thoothukudi district collector Sandeep Nanduri to direct revenue officials to take control of the Sathankulam police station, where the duo was allegedly tortured before being lodged in a sub-jail, to facilitate the JM to collect relevant documents or evidence for the probe.