Man’s death in Viyyur jail triggers protests, postmortem rules out torture

Thrissur: Death of a 33-year-old remand prisoner at Viyyur district jail has triggered a controversy after family members alleged that died under mysterious circumstances.The deceased prisoner has been identified as Reshbabu of Pulakkattukara near Nenmanikkara, Thrissur.Police had arrested Reshbabu in connection with a robbery at Sakthan Thampuran bus stand in Thrissur on May 16 night.Reshbabu and three others had allegedly attacked a man at the bus stand and took away some cash, mobile phone as well as a watch costing about Rs 35,000. Based on the CCTV visuals, police arrested all the four accused a day later. Thrissur judicial first class magistrate then remanded them to the Viyyur district jail.R P Rathish, the jail superintendent, said Reshbabu complained of vomiting and fainting on May 26 and was first taken to district hospital and later to the medical college hospital (MCH). He died at the hospital on Wednesday.According to his father Padinjare Purakkal Babu, the jail officials informed him on May 26 that Reshbabu is ailing and has been admitted to the MCH. “When we reached the hospital, we saw Reshbabu’s lips were swollen and he had tubes both in the nose and mouth,” Babu said. He added that the family could not speak to Reshbabu thereafter as he was on ventilator in the ICU.In his complaint to the city police commissioner, Babu said his son was under medication for mental health issues but was not facing any major physical ailments. He alleged that the police did not seem to have taken Reshbabu’s mental health issues seriously. According to Dr Hitesh Sankar, the forensic expert who performed the postmortem examination at the MCH, Reshbabu had 50% learning difficulties.However, Thrissur special branch ACP K C Sethu and jail superintendent said the family members had not informed the police or the jail officials about Reshbabu’s mental health issues. “The police had a medical examination done on Reshbabu both before taking him to the court and before sending him to jail,” Sethu said.“Reshbabu was not having any health issues and had played cricket even two days before he fell ill,” said the jail superintendent.Meanwhile, DYFI activists staged a march to the Thrissur East police station in protest of Reshbabu’s death. CPM state secretary M V Govindan also voiced his protests over the incident.Meanwhile, the preliminary postmortem findings suggest that Reshbabu died due to internal bleeding in the head caused by pre-existing condition – idiopathic thrombocytopenia – rather than torture.