Nearly six years after trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks died of custodial torture during COVID-19 lockdown at the Sattankulam Police Station in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai on Monday (March 23, 2026) convicted all nine police personnel accused in the case.
Judge G. Muthukumaran said he would pronounce the quantum of sentence on March 30 and extended the remand of the convicts till then. The judge found the police personnel guilty of murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The judge has sought a report on the medical condition of the police personnel. The Superintendent of the Madurai Central Prison was asked to produce the accused before the Medical Board of the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. The judge sought a report on the last property statements and salary certificates of the accused. Furthermore, the judge sought a report from the Union and State governments as to the aggravating/mitigating circumstances.
The crime, which took place in June 2020, shocked civil society and sparked widespread protests. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance of the crime and passed a slew of directions. The then AIADMK government transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In all, 10 police personnel were named as accused in the case. One of them died after contracting COVID-19. The CBI has prosecuted nine police personnel.
The CBI filed a charge sheet on September 25, 2020 and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on August 12, 2022. It arraigned as accused the then Sattankulam inspector, S. Sridhar; sub-inspectors P. Raghu Ganesh and K. Balakrishnan; head constables S. Murugan and A. Saamidurai; and constables M. Muthuraj, S. Chelladurai, X. Thomas Francis, and S. Veilumuthu. Special sub-inspector Pauldurai was also an accused. But he died during trial after contracting COVID-19.
The CBI said Jayaraj and Benicks were subjected to brutal torture by the policemen, knowing that it was sufficient to cause their death. During the investigation, it was revealed the traders had not violated the COVID-19 lockdown rules, a charge on which the police had detained them.
The CBI said the investigation revealed Jayaraj was picked from his shop near the Kamaraj statue at 7.30 p.m. on June 19, 2020, and lodged at the Sattankulam police station in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused. On information, Benicks rushed to the station to inquire about the arrest of his father. He objected to his father being beaten up. Following an altercation, the two were wrongfully confined at the police station and beaten up to “teach them a lesson on how to behave with the police”.
The torture continued all through the night. The traders were made to clean the blood from their wounds. The next morning, a sanitary worker was made to clean the blood to destroy the evidence. A false case was registered against the two, the CBI added. In the supplementary charge sheet, the CBI submitted a report on the examination of video footage available in the case.
The Madurai Bench took into account a woman head constable’s statement, the medical report, and the judicial magistrate’s report. It said it had found prima facie material to book the police personnel involved in the custodial death for murder.