THOOTHUKUDI: The Friends of Police volunteers allegedly involved in the custodial death of the father-son duo did not have authorized identity cards, if sources are to be believed. It is also said that they were roped in for distributing government welfare assistance to public.
Even as the CB-CID Inspector General of Police K Shankar said that the role of the FoPs needed to be investigated, the volunteers who are suspected to have been involved in the case are now absconding. The CB-CID sleuths have launched a manhunt for them. Meanwhile, the FoP state authorities vehemently denied the ‘role’ of FoPs in Sathankulam incident. “The volunteers in question have neither been registered as FoP members nor attended any training session or given FoP identity cards,” said an official statement.
The relatives of Jeyaraj and Beniks have been demanding to slap murder charges on the volunteers who “tortured the deceased in police custody” at Sathankulam station. It is to be noted that the presence of volunteers at the Sathankulam police station to assist the police personnel on torturing the suspects was confirmed by the eye witnesses.
A suspect, who was inquired by the then Inspector Srithar and Sub-Inspector Ragu Ganesh, told TNIE that both policemen asked such volunteers to hold his hands, legs while beating. Petitions by Jeyaraj’s widow Selvarani have a mention of four volunteers.
The complaint lodged by Sudalai Vadivu against SI Ragu Ganesh had also mentioned that volunteers attacked her son Mahendran. Sudalai said, his son was illegally detained. Mahendran died of severe head injuries on June 13. Official said that, the names of volunteers mentioned in the petition of Selvarani are not in the list of FoP available with them. But, their names are found in the Covid volunteers list and they have volunteer identity cards.
Claims refuted
Madurai: DIG of Prisons D Pazhani on Sunday refuted the claims that the five policemen accused in Sathankulam custodial deaths case, were attacked by other prisoners at Perurani prison. The official said that five sleuths were initially lodged at district jail at Perurani in separate blocks, and no assault or agitation took place.They were transferred to Madurai Central Prison over administrative reasons