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The First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai made the unfamiliar and historic award of the death sentence on all nine policemen involved in the high-profile Sathankulam custodial death case on April 6, 2026. The court, headed by Judge G. Muthukumaran, termed the crime atrocious and gruesome torture that resulted in the death of 58-year-old mobile shop owner P. Jayaraj and 31-year-old son J. Benicks (also spelled Bennix or Fennix).

On June 19, 2020, the father-son pair was arrested at Sathankulam police station, Thoothukudi district, on the accusation of breaking the norms of COVID-19 lockdown due to the fact that the father and son kept the shop open after the due time. They were brought into extreme physical and sexual mistreatment in custody, with Benicks dying on June 22 and Jayarat on the next day.

The scope of the torture was observed in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry. The nine culprits, including Inspector S. Sridhar, sub-inspectors, head constables, and constables convicted of murder and other crimes on March 23, 2026. The court further fined the company a sum of 1.40 crore as reparation to the family of the victims.

Human rights activists and the family have been pleased with the verdict and had long battled to achieve justice. It gives a solid message of custodial brutality, but the convicts are likely to appeal to the high court and hope to win the sentence. In 2020, the case had elicited massive protests throughout Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country.