India's long road to justice from police brutality
The Chennai High Court in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, in the country’s south. Creative Commons photo.
While the U.S. reckons over racial disparities and police brutality after the death of George Floyd, India has seen its own high-profile case of police brutality make headlines.
A little overlooked in the Hindu-majority country was part of a High Court order that compared the trial by media of the police to Pontius Pilate condemning Jesus Christ to death based on the public outcry rather than evidence and yet ruling the evidence was sufficient to book 10 police officers for murder.
This week, nine police officers were charged for counts of murder, criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, framing incorrect records and using false information to abuse their power. The tenth recently died of COVID-19.
On June 19, in a South Indian town, Sathankulam in Tamil Nadu, the police arrested mobile shop owners Beniks Jeyaraj, 31, and his father Ponraj Jeyaraj, 58, for allegedly breaking COVID-19 curfew rules and detained them overnight. When family and friends arrived at the police station after dark, they say they were denied access, not allowed to send a lawyer, and they heard screams. The next day, the two men were seen struggling to walk, blood dripping down their legs. Beniks’s sister said she begged for a way to get bail, saying they will not survive much longer. His mother told Indian media her husband and son were covered in blood and beaten beyond recognition. They died a few days later, in a Government hospital, from internal injuries. The footage from the CCTV camera within the Police Station, was found to be deleted.
Beatings, torture, rapes and extrajudicial killings by the Indian police routinely makes media headlines and sometimes stirs up protests but there has been no national movement to fight police brutality or overreach. The deaths in police custody often involve bias against lower castes or minority religious groups. Benicks and Jeyaraj were killed for arguing with the Police personnel who visited their shop to demand its closure, saying it was beyond the lockdown timings. Other shopkeepers in the area raised a hue and cry to no avail.
After a 37-year-old female head cop in India, Revathi, reported brutal and horrific torture she saw by police personnel at the Sathankulam Police Station June 19, the entire uniformed police staff of Sathankulam was transferred out of town.
Revathi was initially reluctant to speak out for fear of retribution by her colleagues and senior officers in the department, and she tried to remain anonymous, but the Indian media discovered her name. She came forward after the Madras High Court, the state’s highest judiciary, ordered 24/7 police protection for her and a paid month’s leave.
In its order, the Madras High Court ruled there was enough evidence to book a case against the police and anticipated a difficult trial because of its publicity:
"Public indignation cannot be the barometer for judicial orders. Public memory is short but judicial orders, especially those of the High Court, which is a court of record, live forever. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, committed the blunder of condemning Jesus Christ to death based on public outcry in a sham trial that was held before dawn and thereafter washed his hands with water. We cannot afford to emulate him..."
Friends of Beniks say they recorded police outside the shops in that area of Sathankulam and believe their evidence will help win justice for the father and son.
The deaths of Beniks and Jeyaraj, by no means an isolated one, has caused a wave of outrage and demands for justice from activists if not everyday people, especially in South India, far from the capital. The National Human Rights Commission warned police in the state of Tamil Nadu to act lawfully.
The federal, Delhi-based Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the case, and state police authorities to their credit, welcomed the decision. The CBI recently reported to the Madras High Court that the cops filed a false complaint against Beniks and Jeyaraj, and the nine cops are now trying get bail.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterros also called for the deaths of the father-son duo to be thoroughly investigated.
"As the world responds with horror at the killing of George Floyd, it is important for authorities in India to also embark on robust efforts to ensure police reform, accountability and putting an end to the culture of impunity,” said South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly.
India's top police brass have fought for policing reforms for decades, and India’s Supreme Court created guidelines for reforms 10 years ago. The wait for their implementation continues.
Jennifer Arul is one of Chennai, India’s best-known faces on television. She has 30 years of experience as a broadcast journalist and executive in Asia, many of them as Managing Editor and COO in NDTV Hindu, where she has worked for 20 years since it started after freelance interviewing for Doordarshan and All India Radio. She is also a board member of The Media Project.