9 Tamil Nadu Cops Get Death Sentence In Father-Son Custodial Torture Case

A court in Tamil Nadu's Madurai district on Monday awarded death sentence to nine policemen in the custodial deaths of trader P Jayaraj and his son J Benicks in Thoothukudi district that triggered nationwide outrage six years ago.

The nine policemen are Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and police personnel Murugan, Samadurai, Muthuraja, Chelladurai, Thomas Francis, and Veilumuthu.

Underlining that this was a "case of abuse of authority", the court maintained that there are many honest police officers in Tamil Nadu and that the ruling will not "instill fear among police". 

"Father and son stripped, ruthlessly assaulted... Heart shudders reading about it," the court said.

Delivering the verdict, the court made scathing observations on the conduct of the accused policemen. It said the father and son were "stripped and ruthlessly assaulted in front of each other  as an act of vendetta," adding that "the heart shudders on reading about it."

The court emphasised that the case was a clear instance of abuse of authority, noting that "those who receive public money as salary cannot cite stress as a reason" for such acts. It also remarked that but for the continuous monitoring by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, "the truth would have been buried."

Terming the brutal custodial torture and subsequent death of traders as the "rarest of rare" cases, the CBI had pressed for the maximum penalty of a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The prosecution argued that the ghastly nature of the crime, supported by the testimonies of three direct witnesses, shocked the collective conscience of society. Highlighting the grave human rights violation, the CBI noted that the victims were subjected to merciless beatings with weapons, warranting the highest degree of punishment.

The custodial torture dates back to June 19, 2020, when Jayaraj and Benicks, who ran a mobile shop, were arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during the lockdown, a claim later found to be false. The two were taken to the Sathankulam police station and later remanded to judicial custody. Within days, both died.

Relatives alleged that the men were assaulted through the night at the police station, pointing to injuries including rectal bleeding and other signs of severe physical abuse.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, which later took over the probe from the state's CB-CID following directions from the Madras High Court, arrested 10 policemen in connection with the case. Those arrested included an inspector, two sub-inspectors and several constables. The agency subsequently invoked murder charges against the accused officers.

During the investigation, a key development was the testimony of a woman constable who reportedly told investigators that the father and son were assaulted overnight and that there were blood stains on tables and lathis at the station. Investigators also faced challenges, including the deletion of crucial CCTV footage from the Sathankulam police station, as recordings were allegedly set to be erased automatically each day and were not preserved.

Over 100 witnesses were examined during the trial, which spanned more than five years.