Tamil Nadu News: Madurai Court Awards Death Penalty To 9 Policemen In Sattankulam Custodial Death Case

Chennai, April 6: Awarding the rarest of rare punishment in the custodial torture and murder of a father and son in south Tamil Nadu that shook the country during the COVID-19 lockdown, a trial court in Madurai on Monday awarded the death penalty to nine policemen found guilty in the case.

This is perhaps the first time so many policemen have been sentenced to death in a case of custodial torture, more so in a case where the victims were innocent.

Holding that the policemen, who were last month found guilty of the crime, had committed a heinous crime and beaten to death an unharmed father and son, G Muthukumarn, the First Additional District and Sessions Court Judge, Madurai, said the convicts deserved no mercy.

The case, according to the judge, fell into the “rarest of rare” realm, and therefore the nine convicts must be hanged till death. The judge also imposed varying penalty amounts on the convicts.

Past instances of death penalty in major cases

Rarely have trial courts awarded the death penalty to all accused in a case. In 1998, a TADA Court near Chennai had awarded the death penalty to all 26 accused in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

However, in 1999, the Supreme Court had eventually reduced the sentences and set free 19 of them and upheld the death penalty only in respect of four convicts and awarded life sentences to three others. Many years later, the death sentences were commuted by the Supreme Court and all of them walked out of prison.

Details of the custodial torture

In the instant case, Jayaraj, a 58-year-old trader, was in his son Benick’s mobile phone sales and service showroom in Sattankulam in Thoothukudi district on June 19, 2020, when policemen detained him alleging violation of COVID-19 lockdown rules. He was taken to the Sattankulam Police Station, where he was beaten up.

When Benicks rushed to the police station and questioned the police personnel, he too was taken into custody and tortured the entire night. The father and son sustained severe bleeding injuries, and their family members were asked to bring a change of clothes, and the victims were allegedly forced to wipe their own blood.

The severely injured victims were then produced before the jurisdictional magistrate and remanded in judicial custody. They were then lodged at the Kovilpatti Sub Jail, where their health deteriorated, following which they were taken to the local Government Hospital, where they died on June 22 and 23, 2020, one after the other.

Investigation and judicial findings

The murder of the traders triggered widespread protests. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance of the crime and ordered a judicial inquiry when a woman head constable, Revathi, boldly gave evidence of the torture meted out to the father and son at the police station. The then AIADMK government, under pressure, transferred the probe to the CBI. The agency arrested 10 policemen, of whom one – SSI Paulduraj – died of COVID-19.

The judicial inquiry brought to light that the policemen did not cooperate with the judicial officer. The Judicial Magistrate recorded that the police did not even acknowledge his presence and were indifferent to him. They told the Magistrate the CCTV footage inside the station was not recorded, but the Magistrate found that the CCTV footage was overwritten deliberately.

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CBI chargesheet and prosecution

The CBI chargesheeted then Sattankulam Inspector S. Sridhar; Sub-Inspectors P. Raghu Ganesh and K. Balakrishnan; head constables S. Murugan and A. Samidurai; and constables M. Muthuraj, S. Chelladurai, X. Thomas Francis, and S. Velumuthu.

The CBI counsel had earlier argued that the accused must be given the maximum punishment.