MADURAI: Noting that nearly four-and-a-half years have lapsed since the commencement of trial in Sathankulam Jeyaraj-Beniks custodial death case, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the trial court in Madurai to complete the trial in the case in three months 'without fail'.
Justice K Murali Shankar gave the direction on a petition filed in 2021 by J Selvarani, wife and mother of the deceased traders P Jeyaraj and J Beniks respectively, seeking direction to expedite the trial in the case.
The said petition was disposed of on March 18, 2021, by directing the trial court, namely, the 1st Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, to complete the trial within six months. Thereafter, the High Court has extended the above deadline on atleast 10 occasions mostly at the requests of the trial judge or on its own while hearing the bail petitions of the accused. But despite several directions issued by the court to expedite the trial including a suggestion to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis, the trial has not been completed yet.
On one occasion, the CBI Special Public Prosecutor had told the court that the trial could not be completed because of the 'marathon' cross examination made by the accused cops, especially the key accused inspector S Sridhar, who was cross examining the accused himself without engaging an advocate.
For instance, while opposing his bail plea in June this year, the CBI had informed that he had cross-examined the judicial magistrate for 26 hearings and the investigation officer no.1 for 21 hearings. While extending the trial deadline the same month, Justice Shankar had also advised the trial court to prevent the accused from wasting judicial time and assign a legal aid counsel, if needed.
Another reason the CBI attributed for the prolonged trial, while opposing another accused P Ragu Ganesh's bail plea, was the vacancy of the presiding officer post in the trial court during which other judges conducted the trial in addition to their own case list. The number of accused (nine) and the witnesses (105) also led to the lengthy trial, the trial court had once said.
Last month, the present presiding officer of the court requested HC to grant six more months to conclude the trial. The Special Public Prosecutor for the CBI C Muthusaravanan informed that the applications of the CBI- one for inclusion of a charge under Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) IPC and the other for expunging a portion of the evidence of one of the prosecution witnesses- and also the applications filed by some of the accused to recall some of the witnesses, were still pending before the trial court.
Citing that already nearly 4½ years have lapsed, Justice Shankar had directed the trial judge to conduct inquiry in the above pending applications and dispose of the same on or before November 25.
When the matter was listed again on Wednesday, HC was informed that the trial court refused to include conspiracy charges but had added and altered a few other charges including Section 34 (which deals with common intention and joint liability) and Section 114 IPC (an abettor present at the scene of a crime will be deemed to have committed the offense himself, even if he did not physically participate in it). The trial judge further sought four months time to complete the remaining portion of the trial.
Noting that the prosecution has closed their evidence and the trial court is proceeding to examine the accused under Section 313 (1)(b) of CrPC, Justice Shankar agreed to grant three months' time, adding that the trial should be concluded within these three months without fail.
The case pertained to the death of a father-son duo, P Jeyaraj and Beniks, after they were allegedly beaten by Sathankulam police while in custody in June 2020. The CBI filed a charge sheet in the case against nine policemen including an inspector on September 25, 2020 and the case was posted for trial before 1st Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai on March 10, 2021. While the trial was underway, the CBI filed a supplementary charge sheet was filed in August 2022.
Timeline:
DATE OF ORDER- TIME GRANTED
March 18, 2021 - 6 months
December 17, 2021 - 5 months
August 29, 2022 - 4 months
June 30, 2023 - 4 months
December 19, 2023- 4 months
May 24, 2024 - 3 months
October 24, 2024 - 4 months
March 26, 2025 - 2 months
June 17, 2025 - 3 months
November 26, 2025 - 3 months