Kochi: The alleged custodial torture of a youth and his subsequent death in a hospital near here on Monday may well be a case of mistaken identity. The complainants in the case itself have revealed that they had mentioned to the police about Sreejith, son of Devaswompadam native Sasi. However, the cops took into custody S.R. Sreejith, 26, of Shenayparambil house. Vinish, son of K.M. Vasudevan who committed suicide on Friday after a gang forcibly entered his house and assaulted him at Varapuzha on Thursday night, told reporters that they had not complained about S.R. Sreejith or his brother Sajith.
“We could identify six of the 14-member gang who attacked us. Sreejith who died in a hospital at Cheranellore on Monday was not among the attackers. It was Sreejith, son of Sasi, who was in the gang,” Vinish said. The Varappuzha police had so far maintained that the youth had suffered internal injuries during a scuffle in the house and that they had only provided him treatment. The accused Sreejith is yet to be caught. However, Mr A.V. George, Ernakulam Rural Superintendent, denied the report and said the signed statement given by the complainant to the Varapuzha police had the name of S.R. Sreejith.
K.M. Vasudevan, 54, Devaswompadam, Varappuzha, committed suicide on Friday noon after a gang attacked him and threatened him over a scuffle with a neighbour the previous night. Varappuzha police took Sreejith into custody from his house at 10.30 pm. His mother said the cops assaulted him in front of her while taking him to the police station and also didn’t allow her to meet him the next day at the police station.
He was admitted to a private hospital at 3.45 am on Sunday with complaints of stomach ache and difficulty in passing urine. The doctors performed a surgery immediately after detecting internal injury in his small intestine. Thereafter, he was in the emergency care unit. However, his condition worsened on Monday noon and he died at 6.45 pm. Meanwhile, State Human Rights Commission chairperson P. Mohan Das demanded that murder charges should be taken against the accused police personnel as the medical report indicated that it was a case of custodial torture.
Injury due to kick or blow: Autopsy report
An abdominal injury caused due to the impact of a kick or blow that resulted in a tear in the small intestine led to the death of Sreejith. “The examination revealed injuries just above the wall of the abdomen which are two to three days old,” a forensic surgeon of Alappuzha Medical College, where the autopsy was conducted, told DC. However, the final report on the exact cause of death will be filed only later in the week. “The youth had undergone a surgery at Aster Medicity Hospital at Cheranellore for a tear in the small intestine. There, a part was removed in the surgery. We’ll be examining that too before submitting the final report,” he said. The autopsy report in general pointed towards custodial torture and negates the claim of the police that the youth had suffered the injury during a clash with his neighbour on Friday noon. As per the report the injuries happened on Saturday.
Three police personnel suspended
The Kerala police late on Tuesday suspended three police personnel after a preliminary probe found them guilty of “official misconduct” in the case. The action was taken against Jithinraj, Santosh Kumar and Sumesh of Kalamassery based on the statement of the mother of Sreejith. She had given a statement to the police that the trio assaulted her son and kicked him in his stomach while taking him into custody on the night of April 6. This was announced by district collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirullah and Ernakulam Rural Superintendent A.V. George who rushed to the spot of protest by hundreds of BJP activists at Varappuzha late in the day.
“Three officers, attached to the armed reserve police camp, have been suspended pending inquiry. The action is taken based on the statement by the victim’s mother,” they told reporters. Earlier, the local residents and BJP activists staged a protest at SNDP junction at Varappuzha for over an hour as soon as the ambulance carrying the body of Sreejith arrived from Alappuzha Medical College after autopsy. They squatted on the road carrying the body and raised slogans against the police.
The protest ended after the collector and the SP promised action against the guilty police personnel. The body was later taken to the youth’s residence for performing last rites. Earlier in the day, sporadic violence marked the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the BJP in the North Paravur Assembly area. The police remained mute spectators even as hundreds of motorists were held up on both sides of the busy stretch for several hours from the morning.
The hartal activists even assaulted motorists for allegedly attempting to negotiate through the blockade. Those assaulted included the father of a toddler being taken to a hospital in Kochi, and a four-member family, including an eye-patient, who were returning from a city hospital after treatment. The Varappuzha police registered two cases for rioting and assault in connection with the hartal.
SIT headed by IG Sreejith to probe death
A special investigation team headed by Crime Branch IG S. Sreejith was constituted to probe into the Varappuzha custodial death case as well as the related cases. State police chief Loknath Behera has directed ADGP South zone Anil Kant to directly supervise the probe. Apart from the custodial death of B Sreejith, the cases pertaining to the suicide of K M Vasudevan of Devaswompadam as well as the attack on Vasudevan's house would be also probed by the SIT.
Coastal security DIG K P Philip, Crime Branch SP K S Sudarsanan, Crime Branch DySP George Cheriyan, Infopark woman circle inspector P K Radhamani, Elamakkara sub inspector Prajeesh Sasi and Eloor sub-insepctor A L Abhilash are the members of the team. DySP George Cheriyan will be the investigation officer. Mr. Behera said in a statement that an in-depth scientific investigation would be carried out into the incidents.
