By Mukesh 
All the nine police personnel convicted in the 2020 Sattankulam custodial deaths case, in which trader P. Jayaraj (58) and his son J. Benicks (31) died in police custody, were awarded death sentence by the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai on Monday (April 6, 2026).
EXPLAINED | What is the Sattankulam father-son custodial torture death case all about?
On March 23, 2026, the court convicted all nine police personnel in the case but had said that the quantum of their sentence would be pronounced later.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the counsel representing the family of Jayaraj on Thursday (April 2, 2026) sought maximum punishment for the nine policemen convicted by the trial court in the case. The counsels submitted before the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai that the case fell within the category of the rarest of rare cases and maximum punishment should be awarded to the convicts. “It was a heinous crime and the traders were tortured all through the night at the Sattankulam police station,” the counsel pointed out.
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.