Justice K. Murali Shankar at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday granted three-month additional time to the First Additional District and Sessions Court, Madurai, to complete the trial in the case of custodial deaths of trader P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks at Sattankulam.
While disposing of the petition filed by J. Selvarani, wife of Jayaraj and mother of Benicks, the High Court in March 2021 had directed the trial court to complete the trial in the case in six months. Subsequently, the HC on multiple occasions granted additional time to the trial court to complete the trial.
In 2023, the court had granted additional time taking into account the fact that the post of the presiding officer was vacant and the case was being heard by the Additional District Judge for CBI Cases in Madurai as additional charge.
In June 2025, during the hearing of the bail petition of the main accused, suspended Inspector of Police S. Sridhar, the HC was told by the prosecution that Sridhar participated in the trial in person and cross-examined witnesses at length by taking a number of hearings.
The Judicial Magistrate was cross-examined for 26 hearings and the Investigating Officer I was cross-examined for 21 hearings, it was submitted. The intention of the petitioner and the other accused was only to drag the proceedings, not enabling the trial court to dispose of the case, the HC was told. The bail petition was subsequently dismissed.
The CBI had filed the chargesheet and supplementary chargesheet against the then Inspector Sridhar, Sub-Inspectors P. Raghu Ganesh and K. Balakrishnan, head constables S. Murugan and A. Saamidurai, and constables M. Muthuraj, S. Chelladurai, X. Thomas Francis and S. Veilumuthu. Special SI Pauldurai, an accused in the case, died after contracting COVID-19.
Published – November 26, 2025 07:09 pm IST
