On Tuesday, the highest court in Tamil Nadu said there was sufficient evidence to charge the police officers involved in the murder case, based on the victims’ injuries and formal statements.
The deaths have renewed outrage in India over police brutality, with family members of the men, politicians and human rights activists alleging that officers tortured the couple before they died.
CNN has tried several times to contact local police to comment on the allegations. The initial police report notes that the men suffered injuries during the arrest. Officials have made no public comment on the allegations.
According to court documents, two officers have been suspended and the state intends to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, essentially the FBI of India.
In a statement Monday, the non-profit Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said the case showed the need for India to enact a strong law to prohibit and prosecute police torture and death in custody.
Habibullah also called on India to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture.
Indian politician Rahul Gandhi offered his condolences to the family and appealed to the government to guarantee justice for the two men.
What happened
On the night of June 19, Jeyaraj and his son Bennicks – who are only identified in court documents by their first names – they sold mobile phones at their store in Sathankulam, according to court documents.
The father and son were detained the following day after a medical examination, according to court documents.
At 7.45 pm on June 22, Bennicks was admitted to the hospital, where he died less than two hours later, according to court documents. Just over an hour after her son’s death, Jeyaraj was admitted to the same hospital and died early the next morning, according to the documents.
It is not clear how the two men died. The Madras High Court, the state’s highest court, has ordered an autopsy of their bodies, but the results have yet to be released.
According to Persis, when his brother, Bennicks, saw his father being beaten, he tried to stop him, but was also attacked.
A broader problem
CNN contacted several high-ranking officials in Tamil Nadu about the allegations of brutality against the father and son, but received no response.
On Tuesday, the Madras High Court said local police have been “trying to cause evidence to disappear.”
“In fact, they were emboldened enough to even intimidate the judicial officer into putting spokes on the wheel of their investigation,” the court said.
In 2018, the last year for which statistics are available, 70 deaths were recorded across India in police custody, according to the National Crime Records Office.
Tamil Nadu recorded 12 deaths, a disproportionately high number, given that the state represents approximately 5% of India’s population.
In India, some on social media have linked the deaths of Jayaraj and Bennicks to the murder of George Floyd by police officers in the United States, prompting protests against the excessive use of police against blacks there. .
But Shashi Tharoor, a member of parliament and India’s former representative to the UN, likened the reaction to the deaths in India, where the case has sparked no protest, to the global outpouring after Floyd’s death.
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