Justice For Jayaraj And Fenix
Channel: RAGASIYAM FACTS
Date: 2020-06-28

What started off as a normal work day for 31-year-old Bennix, the owner of a mobile phone shop in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, turned out to be the starting point of a fatal ordeal. On Friday, June 19, around 8 pm, Bennix was in his shop near the Kamarajar statue in Sathankulam town when his friend rushed to him with the news that his father Jayaraj had been picked up by the police. Worried about his 58-year-old father, Bennix rushed to the Sathankulam police station only to be called in by the police officers there for an ‘inquiry’. Three days later, on June 23, Bennix’s friends and family were told by the police that the duo had died at the Kovilpatti Government Hospital, around 100 kilometres from their town.

Perhaps one of the worst incidents of police brutalities alleged in the country during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Sathankulam custodial deaths have sparked massive outrage in Tamil Nadu. People are demanding justice for the victims’ family and strict action against the policemen involved. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance of the case on Wednesday and stepped in to monitor the proceedings. 

Amidst the massive outrage following the deaths, several allegations have been made. Here is a round up of what we know so far, and the questions that remain unanswered:

Facts of the case, from arrests to death
According to multiple eyewitnesses, on Friday, June 19, the Sathankulam police had picked up Jayaraj and taken him to the police station to conduct an inquiry about an altercation that had allegedly taken place between the police and a few others near Jayaraj’s woodworks shop the previous day.  

Bennix and the friend rushed to the Sathankulam police station to check on his father. After making Bennix wait for a while outside the station, the police called him in. As Bennix went inside, questioning why the police had assaulted his father, he was also allegedly attacked by the police. Bennix’s friends were not allowed inside the station and were not allowed to meet Bennix or his father until Saturday, June 20. 

According to the police’s version, around 9.15 pm on June 19, S Murugan, the head constable and constable Muthuraj were on their patrolling duty in the area where Bennix’s shop is located. “The shop was open after the curfew time imposed by the district administration due to lockdown. Jayaraj, his son Bennix and a few other friends were standing outside the shop. We told them to disperse. While others went away, Jayaraj and Bennix sat on the ground and abused us verbally and rolled on the ground. In this, they suffered internal injuries,” the FIR stated. 

The FIR said that the policemen told the duo about the COVID-19 curfew in place, to which the father and the son reportedly threatened to kill the policemen. “They told us that if we compelled them to leave, they will beat us and kill us,” the FIR claimed. The police version of events said that the duo were brought to the police station and then an FIR was registered around 10 pm on June 19 by P Raghuganesh, one of the sub-inspectors in the station. 

However, eyewitnesses say that Bennix and his father were not brought to the station together, and that in fact the son was arrested later. 

Bennix's friends who were standing outside the station when Bennix and Jayaraj were inside reportedly heard the police shout ‘You dare speak against the police’. Eyewitnesses also alleged that once sub inspector Raghuganesh arrived at the station around 11.30 pm on June 19, the violence inside escalated and that the police volunteers who were present in the station also joined the police in assaulting the duo.  

Jayaraj’s daughter and Bennix’s sister Percy told media persons on June 24 that the policemen had pushed her father by his neck to the floor and beaten him. “When my brother questioned the police why they were beating our father, the police hit him also. My father got tensed seeing this. The police then thrashed them both for almost two hours, locking the door. My brother’s friends who were lawyers went and stood in front of the station but the police didn’t let them in. They have assaulted my brother and father so much,”