HC grants time to nine convicts in Sathankulam case to file appeals

Madurai: Madras high court on Thursday granted time to nine policemen who were sentenced to death by a trial court in the custodial deaths of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks in Sathankulam in Tuticorin district in 2020, for filing appeals.Hearing a referred trial case to confirm the death sentence awarded by the trial court, a division bench of justice N Anand Venkatesh and justice K K Ramakrishnan granted time to the nine convicts for filing appeals against the judgment of the trial court. The matter was posted for hearing on June 4.On April 6, first additional district and sessions judge G Muthukumaran imposed the death sentence on all the nine convicted cops -- then inspector S Sridhar, sub-inspectors K Balakrishnan, P Raghu Ganesh, head constables S Murugan and A Samadurai, and four constables -- M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Vailmuthu. Nearly six years after a father-son duo were tortured and killed by Sathankulam police while in custody, the trial court found all the nine police personnel guilty of the double murder on March 23. The 10th suspect, the then special sub-inspector Paldurai, who too was arrested, died of Covid-19 in Aug 2020.