India court sentences nine police to death for Covid custody killings

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 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.