MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday granted time till June 4 to nine former policemen to file an appeal against their conviction and death sentence in the case about the custodial death of two traders- P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks- in Thoothukudi in 2020.
The death sentence, imposed by the 1st Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, on April 6, had been referred to the high court for approval and was pending before a bench comprising justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan.
During the hearing on Thursday, the nine convicts appeared through video conference from the Madurai Central Prison and added that they were taking steps to file an appeal against the trial court’s verdict. One of them, former inspector S Sridhar, said he would argue his case as party-in-person, similar to the trial, while the other convicts informed that they have engaged counsels to represent them.
Though Sridhar sought parole to prepare for the appeal, the judges said the prison has all the necessary facilities and orally instructed the prison authorities to ensure Sridhar gets the required facilities to prepare the appeal documents.
The judges told the convicts and the counsels from both sides to be ready to proceed with the referred trial as well as the appeal by the next hearing on June 4.
