Web Desk
The death of two men, Jayaraj and his son Bennicks, in Tuticorin(Thoothukudi) has sparked massive outrage in Tamil Nadu, following allegations of police torture before sending them behind bars. As new shocking details come out about the horrifying brutality, people are taking to social media to demand a probe into custodial deaths and alleged police brutality. It has also snowballed into a major political row and has triggered calls for law enforcement.
P Jayaraj and his son Beniks were arrested on June 19 for keeping their mobile phone shop in Tuticorin open beyond permitted hours and died at a hospital four days later. The relatives alleged that they were severely thrashed and sodomised at the Sathankulam police station by police personnel.
Several prominent personalities like Shikhar Dhawan, Jayam Ravi, Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha, condemned the police brutality and called for strict action against the perpetrators. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who stays in America, took to Twitter to post her statement and asked for the guilty to be punished.
“Reeling from what I am hearing. Absolutely stunned, sad, and angry. No human being deserves such brutality, whatever be their crime,” said Priyanka. She went on to urge people to use their collective voice to seek justice for the deceased.
“Sending strength and prayers. We need to use our collective voices to seek #JusticeForJayarajandBennicks,” her statement further read.
#JusticeForJayarajandBennicks pic.twitter.com/vGi8m63If2
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) June 26, 2020
Prominent celebrities in South India such as director Karthik Subbaraj and singer Suchitra have released videos and posted tweets in the aftermath of incident demanding urgent and appropriate action the police officials involved. Their pleas quickly caught media attention and #JusticeForJayarajandBennix started trending in Twitter.
https://twitter.com/suchi_mirchi/status/1276218996602228737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1276218996602228737%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.republicworld.com%2Findia-news%2Flaw-and-order%2Fthoothukdi-justiceforjayarajandfenix-custody-death-tamil-nadu.html
Following the outrage and widespread protests in the city, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court ordered the postmortem procedure to be videographed. Having reportedly suspended both the police involved, the court also initiated a suo-moto inquiry into the case.
