New Delhi

The First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai awarded the death penalty to nine police personnel accused of custodial torture and causing the deaths of father and son Jeyaraj and Benniks in the Sathankulam custodial death case.

According to a press release by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the quantum of sentence was pronounced on Monday.

The First Additional District Judge (ADJ), Madurai, on Monday, upheld that the case is a clear instance of abuse of authority and falls in the rarest of the rare cases, according to the CBI.

The case dates back to June 19, 2020, when the father and son duo were wrongfully confined by the accused police officials of Santhankulam Police Station. Both were mercilessly beaten and brutally tortured during the intervening night of June 19 and 20, 2020. Benniks succumbed to his injuries on June 22 and Jeyaraj on June 23 while in judicial custody, the release said.

The release added that following public outrage and widespread media coverage, the Government of Tamil Nadu transferred the case to the CBI for a fair investigation. The CBI filed a charge sheet against nine accused persons -- S Sridhar, Inspector and then SHO of PS Sathankulam; P Raguganesh, SI; K Balakrishnan, SI; S Murugan, HC; S Chelladurai, PC; M Muthuraja, PC; A Samadurai, HC; X Thomas Francis, PC; and S Veilumuthu, PC -- after a thorough investigation completed within 90 days.

All accused persons were earlier convicted of charges of murder and destruction of evidence. During the trial, CBI argued that the crime is a gross violation of human rights which had shaken the conscience of society. The CBI cited 135 witnesses, examined 52 witnesses, and pressed for the highest degree of punishment in a trial spanning over five years.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Congress President K Selvaperunthagai welcomed the Madurai District Court's verdict, pronouncing the death penalty in the Sathankulam custodial death case, stating that justice was achieved through the CBI probe and DMK government's cooperation.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, he asked AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was the Chief Minister in June 2020 when the custodial death incident occurred, to apologise to the public.

Selvaperunthagai clarified that he does not stand with death penalty; however, a punishment was needed in the case to uphold justice.

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Selvaperunthagai said, "The punishment in the Sathankulam case, secured through a CBI probe with the cooperation of the Tamil Nadu government, is welcome. Although I do not believe in the death penalty, the fact that punishment has been delivered upholds justice. It is commendable that the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted the inquiry with the cooperation of the Tamil Nadu government and secured the conviction."

"Two innocent people were brutally assaulted and killed; this cannot be forgiven by anyone. We strongly condemn this murder. During Edappadi Palaniswami's rule, there was police high-handedness. It was under an incompetent government that all the evidence points to the police brutally killing these two individuals," he added.