Friends Of Police Service Suspended In Tamil Nadu – Burning Issues

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FRIENDS OF POLICE

FOP, a voluntary system with no salary, was started in 1993 in Ramanathapuram district to bring the police and the public closer. It is estimated that there are around 4,000 active FOP members in police stations across Tamil Nadu.
Another official said, “Volunteers can apply, and there are minimum criteria like no political affiliation or criminal background, etc. Those who apply are mostly rural youth from poor backgrounds. It is not the salary but the proximity to police that is an attraction. Some with criminal tendencies take advantage of a favourable environment in the system.”

They were issued FOP photo identity cards. “The alleged involvement of FoP volunteers in the Sattankulam police station is under investigation by the CB-CID. We have received instructions from the police headquarters to recall the identity cards and not to engage FoP volunteers till further advice,” a senior police officer told The Hindu.

The services of Friends of Police has been suspended in Tamil Nadu till further advice. Senior police officers across the State instructed police stations to recall the identity cards given to the FoPs and not engage the volunteers in any police-related activities, police sources said on Sunday.
The move follows a controversy over FoP volunteers being engaged to beat P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks in the Sattankulam police station on the night of June 19, 2020, after they were arrested for allegedly violating the COVID-19 lockdown conditions and preventing the police from discharging their duty.

In a related development, the CB-CID booked the editor of Makkal Seithi Maiyam for allegedly publishing “morphed” photographs of the bodies of Jayaraj and Benicks.
Sources in the agency said that a case was registered against him under the provisions of Section 153A(1)(b) (Act prejudicial to the maintenance of communal harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or is likely to disturb pubic tranquillity) Section 469 (forgery) among others read with Section 66(D) (Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource).

The probe by the state’s Crime Branch-CID into the deaths of shopkeeper P Jeyaraj and his son J Bennix in Sathankulam police station on the night of June 19 has zeroed in on the alleged role of six FOP members who had been “helping the Inspector and Sub-Inspectors in routine affairs”.
The officer while talking to The Sunday Express said, “We suspect that all six of them had a role in the custodial torture that happened on June 19 night and similar incidents in the past. We have identified them, and all six will be arrested.”

FoP, which is based out of Chennai, recently issued a statement that said that there were no volunteers attached to the Sathankulam police station and hence there is no way that its volunteers could have engaged in the custodial torture of Jayaraj and Bennix.
However, several eyewitnesses and Bennix’s sister Percy had alleged that on the night of June 19, FoP volunteers also took an active part in assaulting Jayaraj and Bennix at the station.

So far police have arrested five officers, including one inspector and two sub-inspectors, in the case. While the government has transferred all the other officers posted at the Sathankulam station.
The CBI is expected to take over the probe soon, following a recommendation from the state government.