Kochi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday arrested three personnel of the special squad ‘Rural Tiger Force’ for alleged custodial death of a 26-year old youth in Varapuzha.
Jithin Raj, Santosh Kumar and Sumesh, who took the youth, Sreejith, into custody from his house at Devaswompadam in Varapuzha on the night of April 6, were charged with murder after the investigation officers found them to have assaulted the youth while taking him into custody on the basis of a “false information”.
Earlier, seven police personnel, including the three RTF members, were suspended. The SIT sources said they are investigating whether the youth was subjected to cruel torture at the Varapuzha police station as part of taking action against rest of the four personnel, including Varappuzha sub-inspector G.S. Deepak and North Paravur circle inspector Crispin Sam.
“We’ll arrest all the culprits in the case. The three personnel were arrested based on solid evidence. A five-member medical board will meet on Thursday as part of inquiry into findings of the youth’s post mortem report. The same is vital for further probe in the case,” said inspector general S. Sreejith, who is heading the special investigation team.
Earlier in the day, the SIT again questioned the three RTF personnel in the presence of seven accused arrested for attacking the house of Vasudevan, a native of Devaswompadam in Varappuzha who committed suicide soon after.
It was emerged that the RTF personnel acted on a false information provided by Ganesh, brother of Vasudevan, though neither Sreejith nor his brother Sajith was included in the gang that attacked the house.
The investigation officers are also learnt to have arrived at a conclusion that the youth was assaulted by the RTF personnel while taking the youth into custody and later at the police station, as is evident in the post-mortem report.
“We’ve collected CCTV images from a house near Kadamakkudy to probe whether the RTF team took the youth to other places before finally handing over him to Varapuzha police station. It’s only a 10 minute ride to the police station, however, the team, which arrested Sreejith at 10.30 pm arrived at the police station by 12 midnight only,” the sources said.
Earlier, the autopsy report of the youth pointed to him being subjected to extreme torture method using round objects which resulted in severe internal injuries.
The SIT approached the Directorate of Medical Education to form a five-member expert medical panel to inquire into the
autopsy findings in detail as to when and how the youth was tortured in custody.
“We want all the accused police personnel including the Varapuzha SI who tortured our son to be arrested and punished in the case. We demand justice,” said Sreejith’s mother Syamala.
