3 cops arrested for custodial death

KOCHI: The special investigation team probing the custodial death of Sreejith S R in Varapuzha has recorded the arrest of three police officers who took him into custody from his home on April 6.

The officers -- civil police officers Jithin Raj, Santosh Kumar and Sumesh attached to

Kalamassery AR

camp -- were part of the

Rural Tiger Force

under Ernakulam Rural SP A V George. The RTF was dismantled after these officers were suspended from service.

Varapuzha police had arrested Sreejith (26) on charges of attacking the house of Vasudevan who committed suicide. Residents and Sreejith’s family members had alleged that the officers had beaten him while taking him into custody.

SIT head S Sreejith said the arrest was based on credible evidence. “Everyone responsible for the death will be arrested. It is too early to say if other officers were involved. The arrested policemen were not presented before public as an identification parade is pending,” he said.

Police officers, meanwhile, confirmed that the arrest of the deceased was an instance of mistaken identity. “We could confirm that Sreejith was not present at the house of Vasudevan when it was attacked. He was arrested based on a wrong information given by a relative of Vasudeven,” one of them said.

Custodial death: Four more cops under lens

The SIT has also found that Sreejith was assaulted brutally in custody. The arrested officers will be produced before the magistrate on Thursday.

Four more police officers, including former North Paravur circle inspector

Crispin Sam

and former Varapuzha sub inspector Deepak G S, are under lens for the custodial death. It’s learnt that the SIT has not yet decided if Crispin Sam should be named as an accused in the case as he was only technically responsible for the arrest.

The SIT has also collected CCTV images from a house near

Kadamakkudy

to probe if the RTF team had taken the youth to other places before handing him over to Varapuzha police. The five-member medical board, constituted to study the youth’s post-mortem report, is yet to file its report.

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