MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has once again adjourned the hearing in the Sathankulam custodial death case to June 15 as two more convicts - S Sridhar and X Thomas Francis - are yet to file appeals. While seven of the convicts have filed their appeals, Sridhar, who is going to argue as a party-in-person, and Francis were yet to file his. Noting this, the judges urged them to make haste and adjourned the case to June 15.
In the next hearing, the court would also take a call on whether the matter would be heard by the present bench or would be posted before the next division bench since there would be a change in the sitting arrangements at the end of this month.
On April 6, the 1st Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, had imposed death sentence on nine policemen by convicting them for the custodial torture and death of two traders - P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks - in Thoothukudi in 2020.
The death sentence was referred to the high court for approval and is pending before a bench comprising justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan. In the previous hearing, the judges had adjourned the case by granting time to the convicts to file an appeal against the conviction and sentence.
Considering the voluminous records which span up to 10,000 pages and the fact that the present sitting arrangement would come to an end on June 25, the judges expressed concern that they may not be able to complete the hearing by then. However, knowing the importance of the case, they cannot rush the counsels too, they added. Hence, before starting to hear the matter, the judges orally asked the counsels' opinion whether they wish for the present bench to hear the matter even after the portfolio change or if they want the bench to post it before the successive bench.
