Sathankulam custodial deaths: 9 cops convicted 5 years after father, son killed in Tamil Nadu

A court in Tamil Nadu on Monday found all nine accused policemen guilty in the 2020 custodial torture and deaths of a father and son in Sathankulam.The First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai delivered its judgment in the case related to the deaths of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks, who died after alleged custodial torture in Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district in June 2020. "They have now been declared guilty. I have been waiting for nearly five years for justice—for punishment to be given to those who brutally killed my father and younger brother. This delay has been extremely painful. Yet, there is a sense of relief and peace in knowing that they have finally been declared guilty," a family member of the victims said after the judgment was delivered, as quoted by ANI.Ten policemen, who were subsequently placed under suspension, were arrested in connection with the case. The accused included inspector Sridhar; sub-inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh; head constables Murugan and A Samadurai; and constables M. Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Vailmuthu, along with special sub-inspector Paldurai. They were lodged in Madurai Central Prison following their arrest.Paldurai later died of Covid-19.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the probe, filed its chargesheet against the remaining nine policemen on September 25, 2020. A supplementary chargesheet was submitted on August 12, 2022 after further investigation.The CBI said that Beniks had gone to the Sathankulam police station after his father, Jeyaraj, was detained there, seeking an explanation for the detention. According to the agency, a scuffle broke out between Beniks and the policemen, following which inspector Sridhar allegedly intervened and directed the officers to teach him a lesson on “how to behave with police.”The CBI alleged that both Jeyaraj and Beniks were then subjected to repeated rounds of custodial torture, during which their clothes were removed, further intensifying the brutality.The investigation also found that the following morning, Sridhar allegedly instructed a sweeper to clean the floor of the main hall and other areas of the police station in an attempt to destroy evidence. The agency said the victims’ blood-stained clothes were changed twice before they were taken to the hospital, and again at the hospital before they were produced for remand. The discarded clothes were allegedly thrown into a hospital dustbin to eliminate evidence.The probe further revealed that Jeyaraj and Beniks had not violated Covid-19 lockdown norms and that no altercation had taken place between them and the police on Kamarajar Salai in Sathankulam on the evening of June 19. According to the CBI, a false case had been registered against the two men.A total of 105 witnesses were examined in the case, including Selvarani, the wife of Jeyaraj, and R Revathi, who was then serving as a woman head constable at the Sathankulam police station, as cited by PTI.The court also examined 116 documents as evidence, including the judicial inquiry reports related to the deaths of Jeyaraj and Beniks.