A court in Tamil Nadu's Madurai district on Monday awarded death sentence to nine policemen in the custodial deaths of a father and son. Traders P Jayaraj and his son J Benicks were killed at Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district over six years ago The incident occured on June 19, 2020, when Jayaraj and Benicks, who ran a mobile shop, were arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during the COVID lockdown. The court termed the incident as a clear 'case of abuse of authority' The CBI, which had taken over the case from the state police called death of traders as the "rarest of rare" cases. Over 100 witnesses were examined during the trial, which spanned more than five years.