Madurai, April 6 In a landmark judgment, a court here on Monday handed the death penalty to nine police personnel in the sensational 2020 Sathankulam custodial death case.
The father-son duo, P Jayaraj and J Bennix, died after they were assaulted by the convicted police personnel in Sathankulam, in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, for keeping their mobile shop open in violation of COVID-19 norms.
First Additional District and Sessions Judge G Muthukumaran classified the case as the rarest of rare, observing that those entrusted with protecting the public had committed a crime that shook the collective conscience of society.
The court sentenced all nine convicted police personnel to death for the murders of Jayaraj and Bennix.
The convicts include former inspector S Sridhar, former sub-inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and head constables Murugan and Saamidurai.
In addition to the capital punishment, the court imposed a combined fine of Rs 1.40 crore on the convicts to be paid as compensation to the victims' family.
While pronouncing the quantum of sentence, the judge said that police are meant to protect the common man, and when they become the perpetrators of such brutality, the law must act as a deterrent.
It also noted that by killing both the father and the son at once, police had uprooted the very foundation of a family.
The judge stressed that the punishment must be severe enough to ensure such horrors never recur.
"The case dates back to June 19, 2020, wherein the accused police officials of Santhankulam PS had wrongfully confined P Jeyraj. His son Benniks, who went to police station to enquire as to why his father was detained was also confined after some altercation," a spokesperson of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the case, said in a statement.
Thereafter, the father and the son were mercilessly beaten and brutally tortured by the accused police officials on the intervening night of June 19 and 20, 2020, the spokesperson said.
"Benniks succumbed to injuries on 22nd and Jeyraj on 23rd June. The case was transferred to CBI for fair investigation by the Tamil Nadu government.
"After a thorough investigation, CBI filed charge sheet against... 9 accused persons within 90 days," the spokesperson said.
Following a massive public outcry, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took note of the case.
A total of 105 witnesses were examined over five years. Of the initial 10 accused, Special Sub-Inspector Pauldurai died during the trial due to health complications.