The Supreme Court today refused to grant bail to two police officers accused in the case of custodial deaths of a man and his son in Tamil Nadu. The bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari refused to grant bail to Inspector S. Sridhar and Sub-Inspector P. Raghu Ganesh who were charge-sheeted as accused by the CBI in the Jayaraj-Bennix case.
Senior Advocate S. Nagamuthu, representing Inspector Sridhar, submitted that the father-son did not die due to the injuries at the police station but due to respiratory illness and heart ailment. The senior counsel further submitted that there was no allegation against the inspector for tampering of witnesses and that there was no question of either absconding or hampering the investigation.
Senior Advocate Anjana Prakash, appearing for Sub-Inspector Raghu Ganesh, argued that Raghu was neither a part of the team that had brought the deceased(s) to the police station nor was he part of the scuffle and came much later.
Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the CBI, pointed to the inquest report which was prepared by the Judicial Magistrate and stated that 18 injuries were recorded during the inquest proceedings. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising representing the complainant contended that the chargesheet had records of CDR locations that proved physical appearance of the accused at the time of torture.
She also argued that grant of bail to the accused would result in collapse of the trial and also pose threat to life of two primary eye-witnesses. The senior counsel submitted that the Jail Superintendent in his statement had submitted that he recorded injuries when the father-son duo was remanded to judicial custody .
Senior Advocate S. Nagamuthu relied on Section 53 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 to submit that in criminal proceedings the fact that the accused was of good character was relevant.
On June 19 last year, during the Covid-19 lockdown, Jayaraj and Bennix (also spelled Bennicks) were taken into custody on the allegation that they had kept their mobile phone shop open beyond permissible hours. After their death in custody on June 22, the Tamil Nadu government handed over the investigation to the CBI, which chargesheeted nine police personnel.
The Apex Court on May 25, 2021 issued notice in the petition but refused to give an urgent listing for the same during the summer vacation. The custodial deaths of the duo had sparked largescale public protests and social media outrage across the country. The Madras High Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter and ordered the Superintendent of Police, Thoothukudi, to inquire into the incident and submit a status report.