Kochi: The police which dilly-dallied for four days on Friday evening booked a case under IPC 302 (murder), in the death of 26-year old Varappuzha native S.R. Sreejith, who was allegedly killed in custody due to police torture. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case introduced the section in a report it sent to the Angamaly CJM. The case was earlier charged under CrPC 174 (unnatural death).
The SIT move comes after three members of the Rural Task Force (RTF), which directly functions under Superintendent A.V. George, and four officers including the North Paravoor CI and Varappuzha SI were suspended. On Friday, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) took the three RTF personnel -- Jithin Raj, Santosh Kumar and Sumesh who took Sreejith into custody from his house at Devaswompadam in Varappuzha, into custody and quizzed for over five hours at the Aluva police club, but released in the evening.
“Their arrests are yet to be recorded. However they were asked to present themselves whenever required,” a senior officer with the SIT said. Earlier in the day, the officer said the SIT was yet to ascertain whether the officers used force against the victim or the nature of it, if at all force was used. “We also have to find out when he got fatally injured. The investigation is still at an early stage,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, sources said the SIT is probing what happened on the night of April 6 when the youth was taken into custody by the three RTF personnel. “The trio, however, denied assaulting the youth in his stomach. They claim to have gone there without wearing boots,” they said. Sreejith who was taken into custody on the night of April 6 was admitted to a private hospital in Kochi in the early hours of April 8 and he died at around 7pm the next day. Meanwhile, Sreejith’s wife Akhila demanded judicial inquiry into the case.
