MADURAI: The First Additional District and Sessions Judge of Madurai, G Muthukumaran, imposed the death penalty on all nine policemen who were convicted for the custodial torture and death of two traders, P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks, at Sathankulam in Thoothukudi in 2020.
The nine convicts were, then inspector S Sridhar, sub-inspectors P Ragu Ganesh and K Balakrishnan, head constables S Murugan and A Samidurai and constables M Muthuraja, S Veil Muthu, S Chelladurai and X Thomas Francis.
According to the prosecution, on June 19, 2020, when Jeyaraj was in his son's mobile showroom, the accused police personnel took him to the police station for allegedly keeping the shop open beyond the Covid-19 curfew hours.
When Beniks went to the station and sought his father's release, the accused policemen abused Jeyaraj in front of Beniks, leading to a quarrel between him and the policemen.
Following the incident, the father-son duo was brutally tortured by the cops at the station the entire night.
They were later remanded to judicial custody by the Sathankulam Judicial Magistrate and lodged in Kovilpatti Sub-Jail the next day without being given a proper medical treatment.
Their health condition deteriorated soon, and Beniks died at the Government Kovilpatti Hospital on June 22, 2020, and Jeyaraj passed away a day later.
Two FIRs were registered at the Kovilpatti East Police Station in connection with their death. The case was later transferred to the CBCID briefly, before being taken over by the CBI.
One of the accused, SSI Pauldurai, died due to COVID-19 in August 2020.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against the remaining nine policemen on September 25, 2020, and the case was posted for trial before the 1st Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, on March 10, 2021.
While the trial was underway, the CBI filed a supplementary charge sheet in August 2022.
Both charge sheets revealed that the deceased had not kept the shop open beyond permissible hours and had been booked in a false case.
The statement of a woman head constable, who witnessed the incident, revealed that besides being tortured throughout the night, the deceased were asked to clean the blood that had oozed from their wounds and which was scattered on the police station's floor with their own vests.
The postmortem report indicated that there had been 13 external injuries on Beniks' body and 17 injuries on Jeyaraj's body. Almost all were blunt injuries; complications arising from them seemed to have resulted in their deaths, the report said.
After an elaborate trial spanning more than four years, the nine policemen were found guilty by the court on March 23.
During the hearing on sentencing, the CBI special public prosecutor argued that the case had shocked society and falls within the rarest of rare category, warranting the death penalty or atleast life imprisonment till death.
This was opposed by the counsels representing the convicts, with one of them claiming that it was Beniks who created a problem at the police station following his father's arrest. The counsels added that only due to the sudden provocation had the policemen beaten the duo, and there was no premeditation in the case.
Stating that the case would not fall within the rarest of rare case category, they requested the court to impose lesser punishment, focusing on the reformation of the convicts.
But the victim's counsel pointed out that the weapon used was only a police lathi, and if it had been merely on sudden provocation, the convicts would have been drained of all energy after 10 to 15 beatings.
However, they proceeded to beat the duo throughout the night, fully aware of the consequences of their actions, which indicated that they are beyond reformation.
After hearing both sides, the judge concluded that the case falls under the rarest of rare category and imposed the death penalty.