Madurai Court Sentences Nine Police Officers to Death for Custodial Deaths

Madurai. A local court in Madurai has delivered a landmark verdict in the case of the custodial deaths of a father and son in Sathankulam, Tamil Nadu.

Madurai's First Additional District and Sessions Judge G. Muthukumaran has sentenced nine police officers to death. They were found guilty of torturing and killing two traders, P. Jeyaraj and his son Bennix, in police custody at Sathankulam, Thoothukudi, in 2020.

The convicted officers include the then Inspector S. Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors P. Raghu Ganesh and K. Balakrishnan, Head Constables S. Murugan and A. Samidurai, and Constables M. Muthuraja, S. Vellai Muthu, S. Chelladurai, and X. Thomas Francis.

What was the incident?

According to the prosecution, on June 19, 2020, Jeyaraj was at his son's mobile shop when the accused police officers took them to the police station for allegedly keeping the shop open beyond the COVID-19 lockdown hours. When Bennix went to the station to request his father's release, the officers mistreated Jeyaraj in front of him, leading to an altercation. Following this, the police detained the father and son overnight and subjected them to brutal torture.

Subsequently, the Sathankulam Judicial Magistrate ordered them to be sent to judicial custody, and the next day they were placed in Kovilpatti Sub-Jail without proper medical treatment. Their health deteriorated rapidly. Bennix died on June 22, 2020, at the Kovilpatti Government Hospital, and Jeyaraj passed away a day later. Two FIRs were registered at the Kovilpatti East Police Station regarding their deaths.

One officer died due to COVID

The case was initially handed over to the state's Crime Branch-CID before being taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). One of the accused, Assistant Sub-Inspector Pauldurai, died of COVID-19 in August 2020. The CBI filed a charge sheet against the remaining nine officers on September 25, 2020, and the trial began at the Madurai First Additional District and Sessions Court on March 10, 2021.

During the trial, the CBI filed a supplementary charge sheet in August 2022. Both charge sheets indicated that the victims had not kept the shop open beyond the permitted time and were framed in a false case. According to the testimony of a female head constable, the victims were not only tortured throughout the night but were also forced to clean the station floor with their own vests soaked in blood from their wounds.

Trial lasted over four years

The autopsy report revealed 13 external injuries on Bennix's body and 17 on Jeyaraj's. The report stated that almost all injuries were caused by blunt objects, and complications arising from these led to their deaths.

After a trial lasting over four years, the court convicted the nine officers on March 23. During the sentencing arguments, the CBI's special public prosecutor argued that the case had shocked society and fell into the 'rarest of rare' category, demanding the death penalty or at least life imprisonment until death.