A court in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district on Monday awarded death sentence to nine policemen in the custodial death case that took place in Thoothukudi district. This case happened six years ago, in which father-son duo P Jayaraj and J Bennix, who ran a mobile shop, died in police custody. This incident had created great anger in the entire country.
The family of the deceased had alleged that on June 19, 2020, both of them were taken to Satankulam police station on false charges of keeping their shop open during the lockdown. There they were brutally treated throughout the night. They were beaten so badly with sticks and weapons that their condition became very bad. Both of them died after a few days. Family members told that the father and son were stripped and beaten badly. He had serious injuries on his body and also painful injuries like rectal bleeding.
The court described the case as a case of ‘abuse of authority’. The court said that the father and son were stripped naked and beaten mercilessly. The court wrote, ‘The heart trembles after reading this incident.’ The court considered it the ‘rarest of rare’ i.e. a very rare and serious crime. CBI had also demanded death penalty or life imprisonment without parole.
The CBI said that the statements of three eyewitnesses proved that this was a heinous crime. The police grossly violated human rights. Both were brutally killed with weapons, which shocked the collective conscience of the society.
The investigation of this case was later handed over to CBI. The CBI arrested 10 policemen, including an inspector, two sub-inspectors and several constables. Statements of more than 100 witnesses were recorded during the trial. The trial lasted for more than five years.
Madurai Court has revealed the names of nine policemen to be awarded death sentence – Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspector Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and policemen Murugan, Samadurai, Muthuraja, Chelladurai, Thomas Francis and Velumuthu. The court clearly said that there are many honest police officers in Tamil Nadu and this decision will not create fear among the police. The court said that this decision is only for those who misuse their power.
In this case, a woman constable had also testified that the father and son were beaten the whole night and there were blood stains on the tables and sticks in the police station. The CCTV footage of the police station had also disappeared as the old footage was automatically deleted every day.
