A Madurai court on Monday awarded the death sentence to all nine police officers convicted in the custodial deaths of a father and son at the Sattankulam police station in Thoothukudi district in June 2020, The Hindu reported.

On March 23, the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai found the nine officers guilty of the deaths of P Jeyaraj (58) and his son J Benniks (31).

Judge G Muthukumaran had convicted inspector S Sridhar, sub-inspectors P Raghu Ganesh and K Balakrishnan, head constables S Murugan and A Saamidurai, and constables M Muthuraj, S Chelladurai, Thomas X and S Veilumuthu.

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A tenth accused in the case, special sub-inspector Pauldurai, had died after contracting Covid-19.

On June 18, 2020, police arrested Jeyaraj and Benniks in Sattankulam for allegedly violating the Covid-19 lockdown rules. They were taken to the police station, where they were beaten and tortured overnight.

The next day, they were remanded to judicial custody and sent to jail. Both developed serious health complications and were taken to the hospital. Benicks died on June 22, 2020 and Jayaraj died on June 23, 2020.

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Their deaths triggered widespread protests and outrage about police brutality.

On March 23, the court observed that the injuries on Jeyaraj and his son were unnatural, while noting that the post-mortem reports said they were caused by repeated assault.

The judge had also rejected the arguments that the injuries were self-inflicted. It could not be said that the death was caused by illness, despite Jayaraj’s history of heart ailment, the court had held. It had concluded that the two men were murdered,

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the case, ordered a judicial inquiry and began monitoring the matter. The state government later transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI had also prosecuted the nine police officers.