Bloodies clothes, tortured: Why are at times police so brutal? The dark story of custodial deaths
Why are their a lot of George Floyd's? Why are the policemen who are meant to protect society and people turning against us? Why the vengeance? How can someone be so brutal?
There are a lot of questions that arise in everyone's minds as we hear about the cynical, brutal mentality. There has always been Goerge Floyds, Jayarajs and Fenixs.
The first custodial death dates back to the Emergency period in India in 1976, when P. Rajan, a student of the erstwhile Regional Engineering College, Calicut, died as a result of torture in local police custody in Kerala. Rajan died due to torture of extreme kind, especially due to something called uruttal (a practice of "rolling" a heavy wooden log over the body of the victim). His body was then disposed of by the police, and was never recovered.
Starting with Rajan, custodial deaths have remained, some get reported, while some go unnoticed due to the elite influences.
On September 27, 2005, 27 year old, Udaya Kumar and Suresh were whiling away time at Sreekandeshwaram Park when constables Jithukumar and Sreekumar apprehended them after they found Rs. 4,500 in his pocket. Suspecting that the cash was stolen, the policemen took them to the Fort Station for interrogation. The duo was subjected to brutal third-degree treatment and 'Uruttal' in a bid to extract confession from them.
The same brutal method of 'uruttal' was used on Sreejith, who died in police custody at Varappuzha, in 2018. Sreejith's postmortem report said that there were 18 extraordinary contusions on Sreejith's body. he was severly
Vinayakan, a dalit youth committed suicide when he was released from the police station after severe torture. Spotting his hair style and earrings, the cops asked the documents of the bike. As they could not produce the documents, the cops beat them up and took them to the police station.
In the recent case of custodial death, father-son duo Jayaraj and Fenix had changed at least seven lungies (waistcloth) each as they had become wet due to blood oozing from their rectums." Jayaraj and his son had kept their shop open beyond the stipulated timings as dictated by the state government during the lockdown, this is was the so called crime against them. As Fenix's dad was arrested, hew and a few friends went to the police station to enquire.
Brutality explained
Upon reaching the police station, Benny, as Fenix is fondly called by his friends, rushed inside along with over five of his long-time friends to demand an explanation.
“One cop instructed that all of us be put on remand. When Benny asked them why his father was arrested, I quickly dragged him out to avoid any scuffle. By then, a cop was heard asking Benny to be brought inside. And we were all made to stand outside the station,” one of the witnesses, Fenix's friend said.
“The cop had stepped forward to hit him. Benny immediately stepped aside and then the cop chased him around the table. I was standing there watching all this. I was then pushed outside. There were three other advocates waiting outside the station, along with all his friends. The police then took turns to hit them. It was almost midnight when it stopped and then we were made to leave,” said Jayaraj’s friend who was also present there. "Their knees were hit extremely badly with the lathis,” he added.
Several people took to social media to reveal the gory details of the attack and demanded justice.
