Sathankulam Custodial Deaths: 9 Policemen Sentenced To Death, Verdict Raises Questions On Police Reforms

Even in a country inured to police violence, staged encounters and custodial murders, the torture and killing of a father and son in a police station in Sathankulam, Tamil Nadu, by a group of policemen six years ago caused shock and outrage.

The death of Jayaraj and his son Bennix, who ran a small mobile phone shop, took place after a night of horrific beatings and aggravated torture during the AIADMK regime, when the COVID-19 pandemic had just set in.

At the end of a closely watched trial, nine policemen have been sentenced to death for the custodial murders, and asked to pay Rs 1.4 crore as compensation to the family of their victims.

The father and son, arrested for keeping their shop open a few minutes beyond the lockdown timings in 2020, were remanded in custody over trivial, bailable charges by a local magistrate, who was on his balcony at night and ignored their blood-soaked clothes.

Although the trial court verdict is only the beginning of a long process of dispensation of justice involving appeals and petitions, it is a welcome, sobering moment for India’s police forces, whose psyche remains rooted in a system designed for colonial control over subjects, rather than empowerment of law-abiding citizens of a Republic.

Systemic issues in policing and accountability

It should also persuade the Tamil Nadu government, basking in the limelight of strong social and economic indicators ahead of an Assembly poll, to look inward. The state is no stranger to periodic police encounter killings of ‘gangsters’.

Moreover, although it is cyclically ruled by the AIADMK and DMK, neither party has a monopoly on custodial murders. Last year, a 29-year-old security guard, Ajith Kumar, was tortured and fatally beaten by policemen in Sivaganga over a theft complaint. Given the perceived lack of impartiality of state police forces, both the Sathankulam and Sivaganga cases were handed over to the CBI.

Need for stronger judicial and executive oversight

Lack of effective executive and judicial oversight is all too apparent when magistrates show scant regard for Articles 21 and 22, which guarantee the right to life and due process during detention, and routinely remand people in custody at the mere request of police.

While the ten policemen involved in Sathankulam (one of them died during the pandemic) are the perpetrators of the crime, they are merely the extended arm of a system that has little respect for fundamental rights.

IAS and IPS officers, and executive magistrates, are insulated from the consequences of unlawful actions, facing no penalties or contempt action. In the Sathankulam case, the Madras High Court had to take cognisance of a complaint from an inquiring magistrate, as he was threatened by the police.

Political parties pay lip service to police reform, preferring the colonial model of control to rights-based policing. Equally, citizens cannot be selective about supporting some police encounters, based on their social biases, while condemning lock-up murders.

Published on: Tuesday, April 07, 2026, 05:37 PM IST