Sattankulam Benicks-Jayaraj Case: All You Need To Know About Tamil Nadu Custodial Killings Involving 9 Policemen

A father-son duo died in judicial custody in 2020, and justice was served five years later. Read here for more about it.

The most shocking incident of custodial death surfaced in Tamil Nadu six years ago. It all started when a father-son duo was arrested by the police in Tamil Nadu and beaten mercilessly inside the police station. Both of them later died, and six years ago, justice was served by the Madurai court. The nine policemen arrested for the alleged deaths were given death penalties in what the court termed as “rarest of the rare.” Read on.

When Did It Begin?

It also started in 2020 when the father-son duo was allegedly arrested for keeping their shops beyond permitted hours during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Benicks, owner of a mobile shop in Sattankulam, was arrested, and he was told that his father, Jayaraj, was also arrested. He was taken to the police, made to wait for a few hours, and, on questioning the authorities about why his father was assaulted, he too was taken inside the police station, as per the eyewitnesses.

As per an NDTV report, both of them were kept inside the police overnight, and Benick’s friend was also not allowed to meet either of them. The eyewitnesses also said that they could hear screams and beating from inside. On the other hand, in the FIR, the police cited that the father-son broke COVID-19 rules by keeping their shop open, and had verbally abused the police officers. They also claimed that two rolled on the ground, which caused injuries.

The victims’ families accused the police officers of violence, and it was later confirmed by a lady constable who stated that the violence increased at night. There were also accusations that Benicks was s*xually assaulted. The case was presented before the Madras High Court and investigated by the CBI. Later, the Magistrate passed remand orders, and he was also accused of doing so without a proper physical examination of both men.

Shifted To Another Jail

The father-son were shifted to Kovilpatti sub-jail, and on June 22, Benick died after complaining of chest pain. On June 23, Jayaraj also passed away. The authorities said it was a case of medical complications.

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Madurai Bench

After a lot of protests and pressure, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took up the matter and ordered a thorough investigation into the matter. Postmortem was conducted, the CCTV footage and police records were kept intact, and after the investigation, CBI arrested 10 policemen. Nine of them were sentenced by the court, and the convicted policemen include Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors Balakrishnan and Raghu Ganesh, and police personnel Murugan,  Chelladurai, Thomas Francis, Veilumuthu. Samadurai and Muthuraja. They were given the death penalty by the Madurai bench, and while pronouncing its judgement, the bench noted the case to be an abuse of power, and the verdict to be a message that instils fear in anyone who thinks of doing it.

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First Published: April 07, 2026 7:17 PM