The death of a father and son in police custody in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has sparked massive outrage, as social media users comparing the incident to the death of George Floyd in the United States.
Last Friday, P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix were arrested for violating coronavirus lockdown orders. The police Indian accused them of opening their mobile phone shop beyond the 8 pm limit.
According to the police, the father-son duo was taken to Kovilpatti government hospital due to illness, where both of them died within hours of each other.
However, the relatives of the duo alleged that they were subjected to a brutal thrashing, which resulted in rectal bleeding and eventual death, according to a letter to government officials written by Jayaraj’s wife J Selvarani. They also accuse the police of sexually assaulting the victim.
Bennicks died on Monday after complaining of breathlessness and Jayaraj died on Tuesday, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, who oversees the police in the state, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Two policemen involved in the incident have been suspended.
Hundreds of thousands of tweets were sent out using the hashtag #JusticeforJayarajandBennix, that was among the top Twitter topics trending in India on Friday and among the top 30 trending globally, with celebrities and politicians condemning police action.
Nearly 15 cases of custodial violence and torture were reported in every day on average, with 9 people dying in judicial or police custody every 24 hours, according to the latest annual report by India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the year 2017/18.
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