9 Police Officers Sentenced To Death In India Over Custody Killings
CHENNAI, India — Nine police officers were sentenced to death in India over the 202 deaths in custody of a father and son.
P. Jeyaraj, 58, and his son Benicks, 38, both died while in jail in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu, just days after they were detained for allegedly keeping their cellphone store open in breach of pandemic lockdown rules during COVID-19.
For the grieving family of both men, long-awaited justice was finally served.
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The nine officers were sentenced — the tenth died during the trial — on Monday after it was determined that thy had been responsible for the custodial torture at the Sattankulam police station. The crime shook the foundations of civil society in India and took on a political tone as well.
As a result, the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation, India's primary investigation law enforcement unit, was called in to take over the probe. It also led to widespread protests in 2020. The case was so heinous that it also caught the attention of the United Nations.
"They did this with the intention of killing," the sentencing judge said.
The deaths of both men — by no means an isolated one — caused a wave of outrage and demands for justice from activists if not everyday people, especially in South India, far from the capital Delhi.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the two men were stripped and tortured through the night at the station, often in front of each other.
“Where there was power, there should be responsibility. Jayaraj and Benicks were unarmed and were tortured at regular intervals all through the night at the police station,” the judge added.
The court also imposed fines of Rs10m — equal to $108,000 — on the convicted officers.
While India, a Hindu-majority country, has the death penalty, executions remain rare. The last one was carried out in 2020.
Hinduism holds no single, official stance on the death penalty, reflecting a diversity of views that balance the principle of ahimsa (non-violence) with the duty of the state to protect society (dharma).
Neither victims had any criminal past. However, both father and son were stripped naked and suffered unbearable assault and torture throughout the night while in police custody. Benicks died on June 22 as a result of his injuries. His father died the following day.
Jennifer Arul is one of Chennai, India’s best-known faces on television. She has over 30 years of experience as a broadcast journalist and executive in Asia, many of them as Managing Editor and COO in NDTV Hindu, where she has worked for 20 years since it started after freelance interviewing for Doordarshan and All India Radio. She is also a board member of The Media Project.