NHRC sends notice to senior officers over Tamil Nadu custodial deaths

Days after a person and his son died due to alleged police torture in Tamil Nadu, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today served notices to the DGP and SP of Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu.

NHRC tweeted that it sought a report from the officers, and added that the report should include "inquest report, postmortem examination report, medical treatment record, magisterial enquiry report and health screening report of both victims, within 6 weeks."

A week before, P Jeyaraj (62) and his son J Bennix (32) of the Sathankulam town were arrested by the Police for keeping their mobile shop open 15 minutes beyond the pandemic-induced deadline of 7 pm. They later died in the custody due to alleged police torture. The issue has sparked a huge row, prompting the state government into passing an order to transfer the investigation into the deaths to the CBI.