CB-CID team sets its eye on Friends of Police

Constable Muthuraj of Sattankulam police station, who was arrested by the CB-CID team near Vilathikulam in the district on Friday night in connection with the twin custodial deaths, was remanded in judicial custody.

Produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Hema on Saturday morning after health screening in the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital around 8 a.m., he was remanded till July 17. Following information from a relative of Muthuraj, the police team rushed to Poosanoor, the native place of the constable, from where he was picked up, sources said.

Having arrested all the key accused in the case, the CB-CID is likely to approach the court for seeking custody of the arrested police officers and policemen for interrogation soon.

Meanwhile, sources in the CB-CID said the investigators, who have already arrested the five police personnel named as accused in the first information report, have diverted their attention towards the role of ‘Friends of Police’ members who were alleged to have beaten up Jayaraj and Benicks even as they were kept in the police station on June 19 night.

A conversation purportedly between two Friends of Police members over phone confirmed the suspicion that they too had played a gruesome role in the torture of Jayaraj and Benicks.

Sources say five Friends of Police members who were in the Sattankulam station when the father-son duo was thrashed would be grilled to know their role in this case. “Since they have gone underground and their mobile phones remain switched off, they cannot be reached so far. Anyway, they will also be grilled soon based on information the investigators have collected,” said an officer.