Tuesday, April 7, 2026 - An Indian court has sentenced nine policemen to death for the torture and killing of a father and son in 2020 who were detained for allegedly breaching Covid lockdown rules.
The additional district judge in Madurai, in the southern
state of Tamil Nadu, found the officers guilty in the custodial deaths of
trader Jeyaraj, 59, and his son Benniks, 31, according to a statement by the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday.
“The court upheld that the case is a clear instance of abuse
of authority and falls in the rarest of the rare cases,” it said following
sentencing on Monday in a case that triggered outrage over police brutality.
The two men were picked up by the officers from a police
station and allegedly subjected to brutal torture.
Media reports said the victims, who ran a mobile shop, were
arrested for allegedly keeping their shop open beyond permitted hours during a
lockdown as the Covid-19 pandemic raged across the country.
Widespread outrage over the killings pushed the Tamil Nadu
government to transfer the case to the CBI, which filed charges against nine
officers within 90 days.
During the trial, the CBI examined more than 50 witnesses
and argued that the killings had “shaken public conscience”, warranting the
severest punishment.
All nine accused were convicted of murder and destroying
evidence.
India carries out executions by hanging, though they remain
rare.
The last executions in India were in March 2020, when four
men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a woman on a Delhi bus were
hanged, in a case that sparked huge nationwide protests.
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