In May 2020, George Floyd’s death triggered the Justice for George Floyd protests in USA and other parts of the world. A lot of protesters took to street to raise their voices against racism, police brutality, and lack of police accountability.
A somewhat similar protest started in major parts of the country against an incident which took place in thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu in June 2020. The custodial killing of Jayaraj and Bennicks sent shockwaves throughout the country and since then many have been demanding justice for Jayaraj and Bennicks.
59-year-old P Jayaraj and his 31-year-old son J Bennicks were ordinary middle-class men who were tortured and allegedly killed in police custody for violating the lockdown rules and keeping their mobile store open beyond the permitted time during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Various media reports have suggested that the duo was brutally assaulted sexually in police custody. The eye witnesses and the family members have claimed that the father-son duo had injuries near their genitals and were bleeding profusely.
The Police force is considered to be the guardian of the general public. There has been several instance of use of excessive force by the police officials in the past and even during this Covid-19 lockdown, starting from minor instances such as videos of police officers turning down the trollies of vegetable vendors during lockdown surfacing online to the news Jayaraj and Bennicks dying in Police Custody.
Custodial deaths, excessive use of force by the police and this hue over lack of police accountability is not new in India, but the current ongoing Covid-19 lockdown and the already worldwide outrage going on against police brutality in USA has brought these issues to light.
And, July came with the news of encounter of Gangster “Vikas Dubey” of Kanpur. ‘Encounter’ a swift action taken by police often referred to as extra-judicial killings.
The definition of this term ‘encounter’ is itself skewed and this need no further clarification. This excessive use of force by the police is an ‘open secret’ and often glorified in the pop-culture including cinema.
The reasoning given by the police officials and circumstances stated by them which lead to the said encounter sounds nothing less than the script of a movie. A Gangster who shouted his name infront of media to ensure everyone knows he is being arrested, dared to escape the armed officials of police force on foot after the car he was inside met an accident and was turned upside down. The Gangster must have received certain injuries from the said accident and it is strange that even after that a man of his intellect would try to escape from armed police officers.
As strange as it may seem, the said gangster got killed in a police encounter after being shot in his chest by police officers who are specially trained to handle such situation, while he was trying to escape snatching the arms of police officers.
Police is entitled to save us from criminals but, who will save us from these police officers, who apparently do not respect the justice delivery system of our country.
Yesterday, it was about the ‘Custodial Death’ of ordinary middle-class father son duo from thoothukudi. Today, it is about the ‘Encounter’ of a gangster a criminal charged with multiple crimes. According to Article 21 of Indian Constitution “No person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.” Whatever happened can not be legally justified as it amounts to sheer violation of rule of law and the procedure established by law.
Excessive use of power by police officers and lack of accountability on their part is continuously raising a question that, Who will guard the guardians ???
Who will protect us from this organised gang of criminals in uniform ???
LEGALLY JUST !!! 