Chennai: After the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered a CB-CID probe to protect the evidences into the Sathankulam father-son duo custodial deaths till the CBI takes over the case, Tirunelveli CB-CID Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Anil Kumar formally commenced the investigation.
A case has been filed by the CB-CID and probe is going on since this morning. Armed with the court directive, the DSP visited the Sathankulam Police Station, where the case details were handed over to him.
Earlier, a Division Bench of the HC, after perusing the post mortem reports of P Jayaraj (60) and his son J Benicks (31), who had died due to police excesses on 22 and 23 June, revealed that there were several injuries on the bodies of the duo.
Taking cognisance of the report of the Kovilpatti Judicial Magistrate Bharathidasan, who had said that Sathankulam police were not cooperating with the investigation, the Bench said there were sufficient materials to book a case against the police personnel, who had tortured the duo in custody, under Section 302 (Murder) of the IPC, as the reports were damaging.
The Court said since there was a possibility of destroying the evidences, the CB-CID was directed to commence the probe today itself, following which Anil Kumar formally started the investigations.
Based on Kovilpatti JM’s report, the HC directed Thoothukudi district collector Sandeep Nanduri to provide protection to the key witness–a woman police constable and her family members –who had spilled the beans about the custodial torture in the case.
While directing for a CB-CID probe as an interim measure to protect the evidences in the case, the court observed that the State government could reconsider its decision to transfer the case to the CBI, if it was satisfied with the CB-CID probe.