Relieved family members say they finally got justice

Madurai: Family members of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks, welcomed the decision of the first additional district and sessions court in Madurai on Monday awarding death sentence to all nine convicted police personnel in the 2020 Sathankulam custodial deaths case, and said that they finally got justice."We believed and hoped that the court would render justice to the family. Now that the court awarded the death sentence to the nine police personnel, we finally got justice," Jeyaraj's daughter and elder sister of Beniks, J Persis, told reporters on Monday."The justice we got today is the justice for all common people. No other family should face the trauma that we underwent. We believe judgement in the case would prevent such incidents of custodial deaths in the future," she added.In a video statement, executive director of People's Watch and human rights activist Henri Tiphagne said that it was a significant judgement where death penalty was imposed on all the nine policemen in the Sathankulam custodial deaths case. He said that the judgement was very special since the family members of Jeyaraj and Beniks were present in the court and they welcomed the judgement with happiness.Tiphagne said that Madras high court, which took suo motu cognisance of the case, safeguarded the witnesses. "This was very significant for the case ending in conviction. In the Sathankulam case, all the accused policemen were in jail till the judgement was pronounced. If they had been released on bail, they could have tampered with the witnesses. This case has set an example," he said. The activist further said that though he welcomes the judgement, he has a different opinion with regard to the award of the death penalty. "Considering the reformation aspect, life sentences could have been imposed on the convicts," he added.