Inside the 2020 Tamil Nadu father-son custodial deaths case that got its verdict 6 years later

THe exchange Bureau of investigating (CBI) on mon responded to a Madurai margaret court’s finding of fact in the 2020 custodial death case of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu, where nine police officials from the Sathankulam police station were sentenced to death.The judgment comes nearly six years after P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix were allegedly assaulted by police personnel in Sathankulam, Thoothukudi district, for reportedly keeping their mobile shop open in violation of COVID-19 restrictions.Also Read | Sathankulam custodial death: Madurai court gives death penalty to 9 cops, CBI says was given case for ‘fair’ probeWhat is the court's verdict?The court observed that by killing both the father and the son, the police had destroyed the foundation of an entire family. It emphasised that the punishment must be severe enough to prevent such incidents in the future.The court awarded capital punishment to all nine convicted policemen. The convicts include former inspector S Sridhar, former sub-inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and head constables Murugan and Saamidurai.In addition to the death sentence, the court imposed a total fine of ₹1.40 crore, to be paid as compensation to the victims’ family.What was the 2020 Tamil Nadu custodial death case?In an HT report from 2020, Mahendran’s mother Vadivu (65), in her affidavit, alleged that her son was picked up by sub-inspector Raghu Ganesh from the Sathankulam police station on May 23 and tortured in connection with a murder case in which his brother, Durai, was a suspect. She also named inspector Sridhar.She maintained that Mahendran, a construction worker, was not an accused in the case.According to the affidavit, Raghu Ganesh and other policemen had visited her house on May 22 while searching for Durai, who was suspected in the murder of Jeyakumar on May 18 in Peikulam.On May 23, around 2 am, police reached Mahendran’s aunt’s house. “They dragged my younger son Mahendran out and started to beat him brutally all over the body, including his private parts,” the affidavit stated.“The policemen attacked him in his head also and he sustained head injury. Raghu Ganesh dragged him to the police station (Sathankulam) saying that he will not release him unless Durai surrenders and kept my son illegally.”Also Read | 2 cops named in case being probed for one more custodial killingReleased from custody, died a day laterMahendran, who stayed either with his mother in Peikulam or his aunt in Papanakulam depending on his work, was released after a day in custody.However, his condition worsened, and on June 11, his mother took him to the Thoothukudi government hospital after he complained of headaches and was unable to move his right hand. A scan revealed a brain injury, and he died two days later.“They are a very poor family and were too scared to go to the police to file an FIR or even ask for a post-mortem report,” Mahendran's paternal uncle M Perumal told HT.“As per medical reports the death of my son was due to a blood clot in his brain which happened only due to the brutal attack by Raghu Ganesh and Inspector Sridhar (who is also arrested for Bennicks’ murder),” Vadivu’s affidavit stated.Separately, the Crime Branch-CID charged five policemen in connection with the deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix, who died on June 22 and 23, respectively. Five more policemen were arrested on charges including wrongful confinement.The father and son had been detained for allegedly keeping their mobile repair shop open beyond curfew hours imposed during the COVID-19 lockdown.The case was later transferred to the CBI, which sent a team to take over the investigation.