The Friends of Police (FoP) said that none of its volunteers were involved in the case relating to the alleged custodial torture and death of trader P. Jayaraj, 58, and his son J. Benicks, 31, in Sattankulam.
The FoP was founded by Director General of Police (Crime Branch CID) Prateep V. Philip, 25 years ago. FoP State administrator G. Lourduswami said,“There have been a few news reports alleging the involvement of FoP volunteers in the Sattankulam case. We vehemently deny these rumours. We understand that the local police station had enlisted volunteers for Corona-related work. They were not members of FoP.”
Fake ID cards
Referring to media reports about some unauthorised persons infiltrating into FoP with fake identity cards, he said appropriate legal action would be initiated against such suspects who were tarnishing the “fair name” of the organisation. “The law shall take its own course and truth shall come out,” he said in a statement.
FoPs were attached at the police station level and there was no evidence that any registered volunteer of the force was part of the Sattankulam police station in Thoothukudi district, he claimed.
There was no centralised system of monitoring the activities of FoP volunteers since there are a few thousands of them spread across the State. “The concept is to administer them locally. Now that this incident has happened, we are in the process of having a system where their profile will be stored and updated regularly,” a senior police officer said.
