A group of agitated inmates of the Thoothukudi district prison on Saturday allegedly assaulted the police personnel arrested in connection with the twin custodial deaths, forcing the authorities to shift them to Madurai Central prison.
After the CB-CID, which is investigating the custodial deaths of trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks, arrested Sattankulam inspector Sridhar, sub-inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, head constable Murugan and constable Muthuraj, they were remanded in judicial custody and lodged at the Thoothukudi district prison in Paeroorani.
Though the prison has a capacity to house 300 prisoners, only 80 have been kept in the facility in view of the pandemic. When the remanded policemen were reportedly discussing something in the evening near their cells, a group of 30 prisoners, who were apparently following the case through newspapers, thrashed them, sources said.
Prison warders rescued them from the clutches of the prisoners and moved them to safety.
Subsequently, the prison authorities decided to shift the policemen to Madurai Central prison instead of taking them to the nearby Palayamkottai central jail, where more than 1,000 prisoners — both convicts and remand prisoners — have been lodged. “If we lodge these police personnel in Palayamkottai central jail, protecting them from other prisoners will be a tough job for our colleagues everyday. Hence, they were shifted to the Madurai Central prison which, we believe, is relatively a safer place for them,” said a prison official.
