India: Christian
organizations demand probe into killing of 2 men in police custody
 |
| The coffins of P.Jayaraj and his son who are allegedly tortured and killed by police officers in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu state (AFP) |
Christian groups in India are demanding an independent
inquiry into the death of a father and his son after having been taken into
police custody in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
By Vatican News
Several Christian organizations in India are raising their
concern and demanding action be taken in the wake of the deaths of a father and
son who were brutalized while in police custody in the country’s southern state
of Tamil Nadu.
P. Jeyaraj and his son Fenix were arrested on 19 June for
allegedly keeping their stores open past permitted hours in the state that is
still observing a lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Both men were kept in police custody overnight and died
within hours of each other two days later. Relatives claim they were subjected
to brutal torture.
Christian groups asking for clarity and justice
Amongst those seeking to shine a light on the killings is
the All India Catholic Union (AICU) that is demanding a probe by a High Court
Judge, the Indian Christian Women’s Movement that calls for a team of human
rights activists and lawyers to conduct the investigation, the Evangelical
Fellowship of India that appeals to “competent authorities” to ensure justice
in the case.
Abraham Mathai, a prominent voice for the rights of Christians
and other minorities, says the custodial deaths are part of ongoing persecution
of Christians in the area.
He claims that the police officers accused of the murders
“are believed to have also been involved in religious persecution and human
rights violations earlier this year.”
His accusations are backed by AICU, which is the largest
body of Catholic laypeople in the nation. It alleges that the accused police
officers “have been complicit in other custodial deaths in recent months, apart
from fomenting caste clashes.”
Observing that the two victims “had been beaten, brutally
tortured, sodomized with rods,” an AICU statement on June 29 points out that
the “police brutalization” has shocked the nation “which is still to come to
terms with police atrocities in other states which have gone unchecked under
the cover of the Covid curfew.”
Demands for respect of Constitutional Rights
The chorus of voices is demanding that the deaths not be
dismissed as “mere negligent acts” and highlights the fact that the guilty
policemen have not been arrested and charged with murder.
It also requests an inquiry into the conduct of the local
magistrate and government doctors who handled the case.
The killings have also triggered demands that the government
act on police brutality by educating police officers to respect the “human
rights guaranteed to all people under the Constitution of India” and to help
them appreciate “the diversity of communities that exist in the country.”
Catholic Sr Cynthia Mathew, who is engaged in advocacy for
women, Dalits and Adivasis at the UN, points out that over 1,700 people died in
police custody in India in 2019.
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