11/04/2026
NINE POLICE PERSONNEL GET DEATH SENTENCE IN FATHER AND SON TORTURED AND KILLED CASE :
The First Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, on Monday (April 6), in a landmark verdict, awarded death penalty to all nine police personnel to death for the custodial murder of P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks in , , in which occurred in June 2020. The convicted individuals, who were found guilty of murder and other related offences. The horrific crime took place in June 2020 in Sattankulam, district, Tamil Nadu, during the countrywide pandemic lockdown.
It widely shocked the civil society and sparked widespread protests.
“If ordinary citizens had committed the same crime, ordinary punishment could have been given, but the police themselves have committed the crime,” the Hon'ble judge uttered on Monday while pronouncing the verdict . Life imprisonment, he added, “would not instill fear in police officers”.
The court described the incident as a "rarest of rare" case, noting the brutal assault of the father-son duo in custody, and ordered the convicts to pay fines exceeding ₹1.40 crore to the victims' family.
Their death sentence is to be carried out only after it is confirmed by the Madurai bench of the Madras high court.
A tenth policeman, A. Pauldurai, was also named in the case but died of COVID-19 while in jail in August 2020.
