Sattankulam custodial deaths case: All nine police personnel sentenced to death

All nine police personnel convicted in the 2020 Sattankulam custodial deaths case, in which trader P. Jayaraj and his son Benicks 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.