Chennai, May 1 (UNI) The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has granted time to the nine convicted cops, who were awarded double death sentences in the sensational custodial death case of father-son duo at Sathankulam in the southern Thoothukudi district in June 2020, to file their appeals against the trial court verdict.
Hearing the pleas filed by the nine convicted cops last evening, a Division Bench comprising Justice N Anand Venkatesah and Mr Justice K K Ramakrishnan granted time to them and posed the case to June four for the next hearing.
The Madurai First Additional District and Sessions Judge G Muthukumaran had on April six awarded double death sentences to all the nine cops in the brutal custodial deaths of trader P Jayaraj (58) and his son J.Bennicks (31) in 2020.
On March 23, the Judge found the nine cops guilty of all charges and convicted them and later pronounced the quantum of sentences on April six.
The nine police personnel convicted and awarded death penalties are the then Inspector S. Sridhar, whose bail plea had already been rejected by the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Sub-Inspectors P. Raghu Ganesh and K. Balakrishnan, head constables S. Murugan and A. Saamidurai, and constables M. Muthuraj, S. Chelladurai, X. Thomas Francis, and S. Velumuthu.
Special Sub-Inspector Pauldurai, who is also an accused in the case, later died after contracting COVID-19.
While pronouncing the quantum of sentence, the Judge noted that considering the gravity of the offence, which has shocked the conscience of the entire society, it would only be fitting to award death sentences.
The issue of whether death sentence should be awarded in this rarest of rare cases though needs to be discussed, awardling life term would not suffice as it would noot create fear among the police force.
Pointing out the custodial death was not an ordinary offence, the Judge said the accused cops were intelligent and educated and the very root of a family was pulled out in the form of father and son, who were hapless and were confined in the custody and beaten up mercilessly all through the night. "Merciless beating up of the father in front of his son and vice versa cannot be treated as an ordinary offence and awarding death sentence will be the right thing to prevent recurrence of such incidents", the Judge remarked.
The CBI in its elaborate submissions had termed as 'rarest of rare' cases, the brutal custodial torture and the death of the father-son duo and demanded awarding maximum punishment of death sentence or life imprisonment till their death without parole. It argued that the ghastly nature of the crime, supported by the testimonies of three direct eyewitnesses, 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.
While finding them guilty and convicting all the nine cops, the Judge affirmed the key CBI findings, noting their injuries were “contrary to natural causes” and indicated of custodial torture.
The court also recorded that the duo’s hands were tied up while being repeatedly assaulted, with the CBI chargesheet stating they were beaten at 10-minute intervals through the night on a table. One of the police personnel reportedly even remarked that they could get "practice in beating" with the duo.
The Judge also noted that, as per the CBI, the duo had not violated the lockdown norms and that the case was foisted on them, while terming the incident as one of the most disturbing case of police brutality in recent Indian history.
On June 19, 2020, Jeyaraj (59) and his son Bennix (31) were picked up by the Sathankulam police on the allegation that they had kept their mobile phone shop open beyond the permissible hours during the pandemic lockdown. The duo were then allegedly subjected to brutal assault and third degree treatment at the police station throughout the night and remanded to the sub-jail in Kovilpatti the following day.
The Sathankulam custodial deaths case had triggered nationwide outrage as according to family members and subsequent investigations, what happended that night was a night of brutal custodial torture.
Witness accounts and medical reports revealed severe physical assault, repeated thrashings, alleged sexual torture using batons, denial of medical care. Their relatives also pointed to serious torture including rectal bleeding and other signs of severe physical abuse. Despite their deteriorating condition, the duo were remanded in judicial custody and sent to prison, before their deaths 2-3 days later sparking outrage. Jayaraj died on June 22, 2020 and Bennicks died the next day raising serious questions about custodial violence and accountability.
The incident sparked outrage across Tamil Nadu and the entire country, with comparisons drawn to the George Floyd protests in the United States, which were unfolding around the same time. It also triggered massive public anger and protests across the state and social media campaigns demanded justice, celebrities and political leaders strongly condemned the incident and the police brutality.
The probe was initially handed over to the CB-CID Wing of the Tamil Nadu as the incident has cast a shadow over the then AIADMK government headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami before it was transferred to the CBI after the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance of the case and strongly criticised the police.
The CBI, which later took over the probe from the Tamil Nadu CB-CID police following the Madras High Court directive, 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.
The CBI investigations revealed fabrication of records by police; attempts to destroy evidence; intimidation of witnesses, among others.
The Investigating agency filed the chargesheet, running to 2,000 pages, on September 25, 2020 and a supplementary chargesheet, running to more than 400 pages, on August 12, 2022. The chargesheet was filed against 10 cops of which one of them died.
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