MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court during the vacation sitting on Friday directed the First Additional District and Sessions Court of Madurai to conclude the trial in the Sathankulam custodial death case within three more months. Justice S Srimathy gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by J Selvarani, wife of Jeyaraj, who had allegedly died due to custodial torture.
Selvarani submitted that both her husband and son Beniks were killed while in police custody at Sathankulam police station in June 2020. The case was initially investigated by CB-CID, and later handed over to the CBI. Subsequently, a combined charge sheet was filed by the agency and police department in the case before the CBI Court in Madurai.
Earlier, the Madurai Bench had taken cognizance of the case and directed to conduct the trial expeditiously within a period of six months. After filing the charge sheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Madurai, the case was listed and trial proceedings were held before the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai. However, the trial court sought extension of time and the high court granted five months initially, and later four more months twice.
Stating that the cross examination by CBI sleuths and the parliamentary election have been delaying the trial, Selvarani sought the high court to direct the trial court to conduct proceedings during the summer vacation and conclude the trial at the earliest.