The CB-CID office here that was bustling with activities ever since it was entrusted with the investigation of Sattankulam custodial death case fell silent on Tuesday as the State government formally handed over the case to the CBI, as announced by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Even as the custodial death of trader P. Jayaraj of Sattankulam and his son J. Benicks triggered nationwide anger against the police, the CB-CID was given the assignment of unravelling the ‘mystery’ behind the duo’s death under judicial custody. After the first day of investigation, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar, the case, which was registered under Section 176 of Indian Penal Code, was altered into a case of murder under Section 302 of IPC.
With Inspector General of Police, CB-CID, K. Shankar, and Superintendent of Police Vijayakumar monitoring and coordinating the investigation carried out by 12 teams, the CB-CID men arrested Inspector of Sattankulam police station Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, head constable Murugan and constable Muthuraj within next 72 hours.
Moreover, the investigating agency recorded the statements of constable Revathi, and Special Sub-Inspector Pauldurai, who were present in Sattankulam police station on June 19 night and witness to the alleged police torture by her senior colleagues. They also grilled members of ‘Friends of Police’ and COVID-19 volunteers, who, along with the police, allegedly thrashed Jayaraj and Benicks even as they were in Sattankulam police station.
Since the investigators have almost completed more than 70% of their work at lightning pace, they were busy preparing documents to be submitted in the court during this week seeking custody of the five accused arrested in this case.
However, as the government’s formal announcement on handing over the case to the CBI came out this afternoon, the CB-CID office became alive only in the evening as the investigators kept documents, statements of witnesses and soft and hard copies of evidences they have collected so far ready to be handed over to the CBI, which will start the exercise from the beginning again.
