Satankulam jail deaths: 9 policemen convicted 5 years after Tamil Nadu father and son killings

A Tamil Nadu court on Monday found all nine police officers accused guilty of the torture and death of a father and son in Shatankulam in 2020.The First Additional District and District Court of Madurai delivered its verdict in the death case of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks, who died after allegedly being subjected to custodial torture in June 2020 at Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district.Ten police officers were arrested in connection with the case and subsequently suspended. The accused include Inspector Sridhar; Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh; Commissioners of Police Murugan and A Samadurai; Constables M. Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Vailmuthu, and Special Sub-Inspector Paldurai. They were arrested and lodged in Madurai Central Jail.Pardurai later died of Covid-19.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the investigation, filed a charge sheet against the remaining nine policemen on September 25, 2020. After further investigation, a supplementary chargesheet was filed on August 12, 2022.India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said that after Beniks’ father Jayaraj was detained, Beniks went to the Shatankulam police station to seek reasons for the detention. According to the agency, a scuffle broke out between Benix and the police, before Inspector Sridhar allegedly intervened and instructed the officers to give him a lesson in “how to deal with police officers.”Jayaraj and Beniks were subsequently subjected to custodial torture on multiple occasions, during which their clothes were removed, further aggravating the brutality, the CBI said.The investigation also found that the next morning, Sridhar allegedly directed a janitor to clean the floors of the main hall and other areas of the police station in an attempt to destroy evidence. The agency said the victim’s blood-stained clothing was changed twice before being taken to hospital, where it was changed twice more before being taken back to remand. Discarded clothing was allegedly thrown into hospital bins to eliminate evidence.Investigation further revealed that Jeyaraj and Beniks did not violate Covid-19 lockdown norms and there was no altercation between them and the police at Kamarajar Salai in Sathankulam on June 19 evening. According to the CBI, a false case was registered against the duo.According to PTI, a total of 105 witnesses were examined in the case, including Jeyaraj’s wife Selvarani and R Revathi, who was the female superintendent of Sathankulam police station at the time.The court also examined 116 documents as evidence, including judicial investigation reports related to the deaths of Jayaraj and Beniques.