Sentences in custody deaths on Apr 6

Madurai: The first additional district and sessions court in Madurai will pronounce sentences on Apr 6 on the nine policemen convicted for the custodial deaths of traders P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks in Sathankulam in Tuticorin district in 2020. Pursuant to the earlier order, the central and state govts submitted their reports to the court on aggravating/mitigating circumstances on Thursday.Terming the deaths of the duo due to custodial torture at the police station a heinous crime, CBI submitted that maximum punishment should be awarded to the convicts as the case falls within the category of rarest of rare. Counsel for the victims' family also sought maximum punishment. However, counsel representing the convicts submitted that, considering the reformation aspect, lighter sentences be awarded to them. Jeyaraj was picked up and brought to the police station for inquiry. Things escalated when Beniks came to the station and intervened with the investigation. There was no intention on the part of the police personnel to cause the death of the father-son duo, he said.After elaborately hearing the arguments, judge G Muthukumaran posted the case for pronouncing sentences on Apr 6. It was on Mar 23, nearly six years after the custody deaths, that the court found the nine police personnel guilty of the double murder. All the nine convicted cops -- inspector S Sridhar, sub-inspectors K Balakrishnan, and P Raghu Ganesh, head constables S Murugan and A Samadurai, and four constables -- M Muthuraja, S Chelladurai, X Thomas Francis and S Vailmuthu -- were produced in court on Thursday. A 10th suspect, the then special sub-inspector Paldurai, who too was arrested, died of Covid-19 in August 2020.