THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major development in the sensational Udayakumar custodial death case, the former assistant director of the Forensic Department and a former writer at the Fort Assistant Commissioner of Police office deposed against the accused police officers in the CBI court here on Saturday. Former assistant director Thomas Alexander and officer Gopakumar were earlier arraigned as witnesses in the case. The deposition was made in the trial proceedings at the court. According to Thomas, he had identified the galvanised iron pipe, an iron bed, and a bench used for assaulting Udayakumar in Fort police station while Gopakumar revealed that the pipe and iron bed were taken from the SAP camp at Peroorkada.
Udayakumar was killed after he was allegedly rolled over using an iron pipe as part of third-degree measures adopted by the police to solve a crime. Earlier, Dr Ushakumari, former forensic director, had also identified the pipe and she also revealed before the court that Udayakumar had suffered fatal injuries in the assault.
27-year-old P Udayakumar was killed in 2005 in police custody at the Fort police station. The post-mortem examination confirmed that he had suffered 22 wounds, including those sustained after he was rolled with an iron pipe. Later, the Crime Branch investigated the case and arrested three police constables K Jithakumar, S V Sreekumar and K Soman on charges of murder, torture and illegal detention in connection with the custodial death.
The case
Udayakumar, a resident of Manacaud, was taken into custody on September 27 after he was found with a person Suresh Kumar in ‘suspicious circumstances.’ He was allegedly tortured in custody by policemen who wanted to know the source of D4,020, which was found on his person. The Crime Branch later found out that Udayakumar’s mother, Prabhavathi Amma, had given him the money for buying clothes and provisions. However, Suresh Kumar turned hostile and three constables were released on bail. Later, Prabhavathi demanded the government to initiate a CBI probe and the agency finally accepted to investigate the case. The CBI also submitted a chargesheet accusing the police officers had assaulted Udayakumar.