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Hyderabad: In a landmark judgment, a Madurai court has handed down the death penalty to nine Tamil Nadu police personnel for their involvement in the horrific 2020 custodial deaths of a father and son in Sathankulam, Thoothukudi district. The tragic events unfolded on June 19, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Police arrested Jayaraj, a mobile shop owner, and his son Bennix, accusing them of keeping their store open past the lockdown curfew hours permitted by the state. Following their arrest, the father-son duo was subjected to brutal and severe torture while in police custody, which ultimately resulted in both of their deaths. The sheer brutality of the lockup deaths sparked immense public outrage across the nation. Taking strict note of the incident, higher officials registered a formal case against the nine police officers involved. After a thorough trial, the court delivered its sensational verdict, sentencing all nine accused policemen to death, sending a strong judicial message against police brutality and the abuse of power.
MADURAI: Nearly six years after a late-night lockdown violation spiralled into one of the most shocking custodial death cases, a Madurai court on Monday sentenced nine policemen to death for the torture and killing of a father and son inside the Sathankulam police station in June 2020.The case traces back to the evening of June 19, 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, when P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks kept their small mobile accessories shop open beyond permitted hours in Sathankulam town of Thoothukudi district. What began as a routine enforcement of lockdown rules soon escalated i ...Read More >
Sathankulam custodial deaths: In a landmark judgment, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday sentenced nine Tamil Nadu police personnel to death in connection with the 2020 Sathankulam custodial deaths. The court described the incident as a "rarest of rare" case, citing extreme brutality and gross misuse of authority. Presiding Judge G Muthukumaran held all nine accused guilty of murder and other related charges in the deaths of trader P Jayaraj (59) and his son J Benniks (31). The court upheld the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) argument that the violence inflicted was ...Read More >
Ladakh Protest: The District Magistrate, Leh, has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the Ladakh violence that erupted on September 24, 2025, which resulted in the deaths of four people during security forces' action. Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Nubra, Mukul Beniwal has been designated as the Inquiry Officer to ascertain the detailed facts and circumstances of the incident. An order issued by the DM said that the inquiry will ascertain the detailed facts and circumstances leading to the serious law and order situation, police action, and resultant death of four individuals. The order directed t ...Read More >
Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 6 (ANI): The Madurai District Court sentenced the death penalty to all nine policemen accused in the custodial death case of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks, which occurred in Sathankulam of Thoothukudi district in 2020, observing that the case falls under the rarest of rare categories. Speaking with ANI, Advocate Jaba Singh, representing the victims, welcomed the verdict and informed about the monetary compensation that the court directed two of the accused to pay. Upon failure, their "properties will be confiscated and sold, and the amount will be given to ...Read More >
MADURAI: The First Additional District and Sessions Judge of Madurai, G Muthukumaran, imposed the death penalty for all nine policemen who were convicted for the custodial torture and death of two traders, P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks, at Sathankulam in Thoothukudi in 2020. The nine convicts were, then, inspector S Sridhar, sub-inspectors P Ragu Ganesh and K Balakrishnan, head constables S Murugan and A Samidurai and constables M Muthuraja, S Veil Muthu, S Chelladurai and X Thomas Francis. According to the prosecution, on June 19, 2020, when Jeyaraj was in his son's mobile showroom, the accu ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 3 (PTI) Indian-origin chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan has become England's top-rated female player, according to the latest rating list of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The 11-year-old, whose parents moved from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu to England in 2007, has 2366 FIDE rating points. The primary school student based in North London has overtaken four-time British women's champion, Lan Yao, who is 25, at the top of the FIDE list for England. With this, she has also broken into the world's top 100 women for the first time, currently sitting at number 72, stat ...Read More >
New Delhi: 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-19 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 M ...Read More >
Lucknow, Jul 17 (PTI) To curb illegal mining and transportation, the Uttar Pradesh government is deploying advanced technologies under the Integrated Mining Surveillance System (IMSS), a release said on Thursday. Mining activities are already being monitored through drones, geo-fencing, RFID tags, and AI-powered check gates. Now, the state is set to introduce 'Weigh-In-Motion' (WIM) technology to accurately track vehicle overloading. Also Read | 'Arvind Kejriwal Used Government Funds to Buy Mobiles Costing Up to INR 1.63 Lakh', Claims Delhi Minister Ashish Sood. According to the official re ...Read More >
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday responded to a Madurai court's verdict in the 2020 custodial death case of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu, where nine police officials from the Sathankulam police station were sentenced to death. The judgment comes nearly six years after P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix were allegedly assaulted by police personnel in Sathankulam, Thoothukudi district, for reportedly keeping their mobile shop open in violation of COVID-19 restrictions. Also Read ...Read More >
The United States congressional subcommittee's final report on the Covid-19 pandemic has pointed to the "lab leak" theory, making it the latest US report pinning the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the Wuhan lab in China. "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis," the 500-plus page report said, adding that since they began their work in February 2023, more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists had "endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-19 emerged as the result ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Monday ruled that an assurance given by then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in March 2020 on payment of rent on behalf of poor tenants during the Covid-induced lockdown cannot be enforced by his statement was not followed up by any official action. The ruling by a bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and O P Shukla came on an appeal by the Delhi government against a single judge's 2021 decision, which held that the chief minister's promise to the citizens was enforceable in nature. "A mere statement made by the chief minister would not be enforceabl ...Read More >
Nine police officers have been sentenced to death in India over the deaths in custody of a father and son in 2020. P Jeyaraj, 58, and his son Benicks, 38, both died in jail in the southern state of Tamil Nadu - days after they were detained for allegedly keeping their mobile phone shop open in breach of lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic. The two men were stripped and ruthlessly assaulted in front of each other, the sentencing judge said on Monday - describing the case as a clear abuse ...Read More >
VMPL New Delhi [India], August 14: Ellenox, India's largest venture studio, is accelerating its global push in enterprise AI development. In the past year, the company has grown its headcount by 50% over the last year, bringing in senior AI talent from Amazon and Google to power its next phase of expansion. Already delivering AI transformation for Fortune 50 leaders in fintech, cloud computing, consumer social, and sports-tech, Ellenox has built systems that replace costly call centers with natural-voice AI agents and deployed end-to-end social media pipelines capable of scaling global brand ...Read More >
Chennai, April 6: Awarding the rarest of rare punishment in the custodial torture and murder of a father and son in south Tamil Nadu that shook the country during the COVID-19 lockdown, a trial court in Madurai on Monday awarded the death penalty to nine policemen found guilty in the case. This is perhaps the first time so many policemen have been sentenced to death in a case of custodial torture, more so in a case where the victims were innocent. Holding that the policemen, who were last month found guilty of the crime, had committed a heinous crime and beaten to death an unharmed father an ...Read More >
Madurai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 6 (ANI): The Madurai District Court sentenced the death penalty to all nine policemen accused in the custodial death case of P Jeyaraj and his son J Beniks, which occurred in Sathankulam of Thoothukudi district in 2020, observing that the case falls under the rarest of rare categories. Speaking with ANI, Advocate Jaba Singh, representing the victims, welcomed the verdict and informed about the monetary compensation that the court directed two of the accused to pay. Upon failure, their "properties will be confiscated and sold, and the amount will be given to ...Read More >
The Leh Apex Body (LAB) called off proposed talks on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) with MHA officials, Cherring Dorjay Lakruk, co-convenor of LAB said, as the demands for the judicial enquiry into the death of four people on September 24 was not met. It said it will stay away from talks with the High-Powered Committee of the Home Ministry till normalcy is restored in Ladakh and a conducive atmosphere is created. LAB Chairman Thupstan Chhewang made the announcement shortly after the fourth victim of the violence - a former army soldier - was cremated amid tight security in curfew-bound Leh. T ...Read More >
A bench of justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla ruled that no mandamus can be issued for enforcing a statement made at a press conference. "The prayer in the writ petition for direction to implement the assurance made in the press conference dated March 29, 2020, of the chief minister is misconceived and is accordingly rejected," the court said. "We, however, reiterate our clear opinion that no mandamus can be issued to enforce the statement made by the chief minister in the press confer ...Read More >
Vijayawada, July 6 (UNI) Dr. Ambati Naga Radhakrishna Yadav, Chairman, YSRCP NTR District Doctors Wing, extended solidarity to the protesting Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) at Dharna Chowk. The FMGs are demanding permanent registration and adherence to the latest National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines. Dr. Radhakrishna stated that the issue should be resolved within a week and demanded compensation for graduates who were unable to continue their education due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war situation. He suggested that the government provide monetary help and bank ...Read More >
Bhopal, June 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) The National Commission for Women (NCW) has initiated suo motu action in response to a distressing media report concerning the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi and the disappearance of his wife, Sonam, during their honeymoon trip to Meghalaya. Growing suspicions of human trafficking to Bangladesh have heightened concerns, particularly following the discovery of blood-stained clothing and eyewitness accounts placing the couple in the company of unidentified men. Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar has formally urged the Director General of Police, Meghalaya, to intensify sea ...Read More >
New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday sharply criticised the Delhi Police for a controversial reference to Bengali as the "Bangladeshi language," calling it an insult to the language and its speakers. TMC shared a letter from a Delhi Police inspector requesting a translator for what was labeled "Bangladeshi language" in a statement on X. The police official also mentioned the arrest of eight individuals under suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in India. "Is there no limit to the BJP's hatred towards Bengalis? After repeatedly harassing and detaining Benga ...Read More >
New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) The government has notified a new framework for the edible oil industry, imposing stricter registration and reporting requirements on producers to enhance transparency and oversight, according to an official release. The 2025 Vegetable Oil Products, Production and Availability (VOPPA) Regulation Order, notified on August 1 by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, amends the Vegetable Oil Products Production and Availability (Regulation) Order, 2011, under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Under the new framework, producers will ...Read More >
MADURAI: The 1st Additional District and Sessions Judge of Madurai, G Muthukumaran, concluded the hearing on the sentencing of nine policemen convicted in the Sathankulam custodial death case on Thursday and will be pronouncing the sentence on April 6. The nine convicts - namely, then inspector S Sridhar, then sub inspectors P Ragu Ganesh and K Balakrishnan, then head constables S Murugan and A Samidurai and constables M Muthuraja, S Veil Muthu, S Chelladurai and X Thomas Francis - were found guilty of brutally torturing two traders - P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks - at Sathankulam police stati ...Read More >
JAMMU, Sept 29: As the Leh Apex Body (LAB) today announced that it will stay away from talks with the Government till normalcy and conducive atmosphere are restored in Ladakh, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said the Government has always been open for dialogues on Ladakh matters with LAB and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) at any time. Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp "We would continue to welcome the discussion with LAB and KDA through the High Powered Committee (HPC) on Ladakh or any such platform," a statement issued by the MHA tonight after LAB press conference in Leh ...Read More >
The police alleged numerous inspections were carried out in Nizamuddin Markaz. The Delhi High Court on Thursday quashed 16 cases against 70 Indian nationals for housing foreign attendees of Tablighi Jamaat congregation in March 2020 allegedly in violation of COVID-19 norms. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said, "Chargesheets quashed." The court passed the judgment on 16 petitions relating to 70 Indians, who were represented by advocate Ashima Mandla, seeking quashing of FIRs registered against the ...Read More >
Ladakh Violence: The Leh Apex Body announced suspension of talks with the Centre until judicial inquiry into police firing is constituted and all activists, including Sonam Wangchuk, are released. Leh, Sep 29 (PTI) The Leh Apex Body (LAB), spearheading the agitation for statehood and constitutional safeguards in Ladakh, on Monday announced suspension of talks with the Centre until a judicial inquiry into the police firing is constituted and all activists, including Sonam Wangchuk, are released unconditionally. LAB chairman Thupstan Chhewang and co-chairman Chering Dorjay said the restoration ...Read More >
NEW DELHI, April 7 -- 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) today. "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 o ...Read More >
New Delhi, July 18 (SocialNews.XYZ) The All India Football Federation have congratulated Inter Kashi on being adjudged the I-League Champions following the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). CAS has partially upheld an appeal by Inter Kashi Football Club (Inter Kashi FC) against Churchill Brothers FC Goa, Namdhari FC, Real Kashmir FC, and AIFF. CAS has ruled that the AIFF shall declare Inter Kashi FC as winners of the I-League 2024-25. After an unsuccessful first procedure initiated by several I-League clubs before the AIFF Disciplinary Committee, the AIFF Appeal Committee ...Read More >
Madurai: In a major verdict in the 2020 Sathankulam custodial deaths case, Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has sentenced nine Tamil Nadu policemen to death after convicting them of murder and related charges. The court termed the crime "rarest of rare," citing extreme brutality and abuse of power. The judgment came after a six-year trial, with the First Additional District and Sessions Judge convicting all nine accused. The case relates to the deaths of businessman P. Jayaraj and his son J. Bennicks in Thoothukudi district. They were detained June 19, 2020, for allegedly violating COV ...Read More >
Tamil Nadu Custodial Death: The Madurai court ruling comes nearly six years after P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix were tortured to death in police custody in Thoothukudi district In a landmark verdict that has reignited the debate on custodial violence in India, a Madurai court on Monday sentenced nine Tamil Nadu police personnel to death in the 2020 Sathankulam custodial death case. The ruling, described as falling under the 'rarest of rare' category, comes nearly six years after the brutal deaths of a father-son duo triggered nationwide outrage. The case relates to the deaths of P Jayaraj a ...Read More >